Date: December 26, 2021 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 10, No. 34
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours forevermore from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great delight that I welcome you to the last week of the year. And I pray that your heart will be equipped and strengthened by the Spirit of God to move from where you are now to where God wants you to be in the year we are moving into. Amen.
When the children of Israel came close to entering the land of Canaan, which God had promised to their forefathers, He said this to them through Moses: “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers — to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — and to their descendants after them.”” (Deut 1:6-8NIV)
What was the first thing the Lord brought to the notice of those Israelites? It was that they had stayed long enough where they were and needed to move on. That means God is interested in our advancement. He is interested in our progress and success in life. He does not want us to be stagnant in life or to be satisfied with too little when we could have more. So, if our lives have been stagnant and have not experienced much progress or advancement this year or in the last couple of years, we need to reach out for Him to intervene and show us what is wrong or why this has been so. But to assume or conclude that it is His will for us to be stagnant in life is to totally miss it.
As we see in the case of those Israelites that He brought out from Egypt, there came a time in which He told them plainly that they needed to move on. But where were they to move on to? It is easy to determine to move on in life. But it is not every time that people move on that their movement results in true progress or comfort. It is only those who move on in accordance with God’s purpose for their lives that will find their moving on rewarding.
So, if you see yourself as having stayed too long where you are and in need of moving on, don’t just move on in any direction that you please. Instead, see to it that you move on in line with God’s purpose for your life. And if God has already made His purpose known to you about the need for you to move on and where to move on to, then, lose no time to do so.
Again, as we see in the case of those Israelites, it was God that told them that it was time to move on. Also, it was He that told them where to move on to. And where were they to move on to? It was the land that He had promised to their forefathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, that they were to move on to occupy. Unfortunately, though God had said that the time had come for them to possess this land and that He had already given it to them, they refused to go in at that time and possess it. Therefore, they ended up using the next forty years of their lives wandering and perishing in the wilderness, without possessing and enjoying what had already been given to them. (Cf. Num 13-14; Deut 1)
Now I am sure you do not want to use the year we are about to move into wandering through life without possessing or enjoying what God has prepared for you. So, you need to be ready to move to possess whatever God has already told you is yours to possess. There may indeed be giants in the land. But as long as God has already told you that it is yours, just go in and take possession of it, for He will certainly take care of all the giants there for you. Then don’t just move on to take of anything simply because you feel you could. Instead, through prayers, meditating on God’s word and seeking godly counsel make certain that whatever you are going for is what God has chosen for you. That will not only keep you from wasting your labour and devotion on what will never work, it will also make it possible for you to enjoy whatever you possess. And may the Spirit of God lead and strengthen you to do what is right about this matter, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Happy new year in advance.
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