Focus! If you’re a photographer, this means to train your lens on the most important part of the photograph, making it sharp and clear. If you’re someone with a touch of ADHD and facing a lot of demands, it means to train your mind on the most important thing at the moment…so as to not get sidetracked or pulled away.
As the Children of Israel prepared to cross over into the Promised Land, I imagine their hearts and minds were crowded with lots of thoughts, fears, excitements, dreams, anticipation, apprehension, memories, etc.
I started playing guitar at the age of nine and very quickly was playing music wherever I could. All through my high school years, I spent my weeknights rehearsing and my weekends playing in clubs and bars around the area. My hair was long, I hung out with a questionable crowd, and I’m sure there were many who thought I would never amount to anything.
But at the age of twenty-two, I gave my life to Christ. I stopped playing in the bars, and gradually got plugged in at church. God continued to grow me, and eventually called me into full-time ministry. The kid who didn’t care about God, religion, or education is now a teaching and counseling pastor with two graduate degrees. Who would have believed it!
Ever fell like you’re wasting your time? Like you’re getting nowhere fast? This must have been what it felt like to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
In this age of instant text, google searches, and three minute microwave popcorn, wandering in the wilderness seems like such a waste of time.
But Deuteronomy chapter 2 shows us that God doesn’t waste anything! He uses even the difficult times in our life to teach us and prepare us.
Some people make things harder than they have to be. These people complicate things by ignoring suggestions and instructions. They like doing things their own way. They open the box and begin putting pieces together, without reading the instructions.
In Deuteronomy chapter 1, Moses begins a speech to the Israelites who are preparing to cross over into the Promised Land. In the speech, Moses reminds them that the generations before them had made things harder than they needed to be. They had turned an eleven day trip into a forty year trip, because they chose to do things their own way, rather than follow God’s lead.
God had their blessing in hand and was holding it out to them. He promised to pave the way and handle the difficulties they would face. All they had to do was go and occupy.
But their fear and discouragement led them to doubt God. They refuse His direction…and thus His blessing. So the previous generation spent forty years wandering in the wilderness, never receiving what God longed to give them.
I have a feeling I would be shocked and dismayed at how much un-necessary wandering I’ve done, simply because I was afraid to go and occupy. How many times during a single day does God hold some blessing out before me and longs for me to make it my own, only to see me wander and stumble trying to do things my own way.
God, help us to hear the words “Go and occupy” at every turn, and to respond without hesitation.
What is it that God is calling you to do that you’re hesitating to do? Spend this week asking God to give you the courage to step out in faith.
