Sometimes God wants to take us into a great new season of blessing, but we get stuck in the past. We lack the courage to move into the wonderful new things the Lord has in store for us.
I am thinking of the children of Israel when God was leading them into the Promised Land. This was a big step and it took courage to step out into the unknown. Some of the tribes decided to stay on the other side of the Jordan where it was comfortable. They said they we are doing fine. They didn't want to take the risk of going into a new place, even though God had promised them it would be a place of blessing. They said the pasture there was green and their flocks and herds were doing well and they didn't want to risk the move.
The sad thing was they missed out, when they failed to move ahead with God. Years later this land would end up being very paganized. It was the place where Jesus cast the demons out of the man into the pigs. They stayed because they thought it would be best for their families and their livelihood, but God knew the future. If they had only trusted Him instead of what seemed comfortable and good for them in their own eyes.
God knows the future and what lies ahead that's why it's important to trust Him and move with Him. We miss out we when don't and sometimes our families miss out. What they thought would be the best for them and their families ended up being the worst for them.
Yes there are challenges when we decide to take that step of faith and to trust the Lord to lead us into new places of blessing. But He will part the waters as we began to take those steps of faith trusting Him as we walk into the unknown.
The account of their crossing into the Promised Land in Joshua chapter 3 has always meant so much to me. It was harvest time and the waters of the Jordan were overflowing. How often does the enemy come in like a "flood" when God is getting ready to do something new and wonderful in our lives! When this happens we began to get discouraged, because it looks impossible. But God says in Isaiah 59:19, "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift" up a standard against him".
Joshua remembered what the Lord had told Him. "Be strong and courageous, meditate on My Word day and night and I will give you success!"(Joshua 1)
It was the priests carrying the ark of the covenant (represented God and His Word) that they were to follow and keep their eyes on as they stepped into the waters of the Jordan River. God parted those waters as they took those steps of faith.
God has something wonderful for us in every season in our lives. When we choose to stay instead of moving with the flow of the Spirit, we become stagnant. When we move with the flow of the Spirit we will experience new life, and the "river of God will flow out of us.
"Forget the former things, don't dwell in the past, Behold I do a 'new thing'!" Isaiah 43:18-19
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