For the past few weeks I have been attending a class called "The Story" at my church. This class follows a book called "The Story"… shocker eh? This book tells the story of the Bible in more of a narritive form, starting all the way back in Genesis and Adam and Eve. The intended use of this book is to read it while reading the Bible, helps paint a clearer picture so-to-speak. We are a few weeks into this journey and now reading and discussing about the Israelites and their journey with the Lord.
It's amazing to me all that these people went through. They were oppressed by the Egyptians and freed by the Lord through Moses. Moses led them into the wilderness and desert on the path toward the land that God had promised to them. They lost sight of God in this time and began to build and worship false Gods, after all that God had just done for them they lost faith. Consequence for they have done is to wander the desert for 40 years, over 1 million people wandering in the desert… crazy. It's in times of trouble and trial such as this where we often look back upon times in favor, times that the Lord has led us out of. That's the way the Israelites felt about Egypt, the Lord led them out of oppression and now they look back upon it with favor. They fell back into the way of sin, story of our lives right?
I know that I can relate to these people, I'm not proud of that but it's true. God has made a promise to us all, we all have a "promised land" such as the Israelites. It's the journey to that point that is often more challenging than not. I kind of break it down like this… God is more concerned about who I am becoming rather than where I am going. I think it is important to remember that because I think we all could agree that God does not always allow us to take the direct route.
I see that concept as a big mental obsticle for most of us. We are living in a time of getting things now, the quickest way to do something is more often than not the way it's done. I think that's the common mindset in all faccets of life. When we do not get things quickly, when we have to wait it's a negative. We whine about it, I know that I do. To relate to the Israelites we do not "wander." We then try to take matters into our own hands and lose sight on the fact that God will provide. We are not even in the desert such as the Israelites and we fall to the same sin. It's easy to do that, it's natural for us humans.
The amazing thing is that their is still beauty to be found in this. While the Israelites wandered and lost sight of their Savior he was still there. He wanted to help them, these where his chosen people, he was always just a prayer away. It's the same in my life and all of yours, he is ALWAYS there, all that he wants is to be closer to us. Absolutely incredible that their is something that perfect and that loving that exists. Specially when this happens over and over again. The Israelites would make it to the Promised Land and eventually would lose sight again of God. Their sin would lead them right back into oppression, God would deliver them a leader to take them out of oppression and into repentance, and out of repentance comes deliverance. How incredible is that?
The troubling part of this for me is realizing the cycles in my life. Without a doubt I can admit that I have them, I think it's a safe bet that you do too. There are things in my life that I fall back into, things that take me out of the Light, human desires. I battle with these on a daily occurrence. I think how do I break this cycle? I know that until I get into Heaven life will provide it's challenges, I am aware that their will always be decisions to be made and their is a right way and a wrong way to make them. I can whole-heartedly say that Jesus is the Savior of my life, and that I love him for that, and even that I owe him my life. Is he the Lord of my life? I want to say yes to this, but as I have just admitted their are times where I take the reigns of a situation. Times where I will lose sight of him. I know that this is the only way to break that cycle, to lay it ALL down for him. To make Jesus the Lord and Savior of my life.
I pray that we be readied and willing to break the binding chains of sin and our earthly desires. I think that the 11 months while on The Race will provide many of these opportunities for me personally, I'm confident in the fact that I know not of will come and the challenges I will face. Their are things I know I need to be broken from and when that happens it may not be pretty. I will hurt, I will weep, I will struggle, but in the end I pray I will find deliverance. Beautiful deliverance. I pray this for all of you.
