A couple of weeks ago I was in bed trying to get my dog to take a few steps towards me so that I could pick him up and put him up there to sleep. I would call his name, tell him to “Come here” but he wouldn’t budge!! he wouldn’t even take one step forward. If he did, I would have lifted him up and put him on the comfortable bed, with a cover and he wouldn’t have had to do any work to get there, except take a step towards me! Instead he stayed where he was in the cold, on the uncomfortable floor, pacing back and forth staring up at this humungous bed wondering how to get up there to rest.
It reminded me of how I am with God…
HE will call me & tell me to “come here” and all I do is stare at this HUGE mountain of a task wondering how I’m going to do what He’s put in front of me… when all I have to do is take the first step towards Him…and He will do the rest! HE will lift me & place me to where I need to be. Where I am blessed with his presence, power, rest, warmth & comfort, but only IF I take the first step of faith. He’s not forceful, He’s not going to get down off his throne (or out of bed in my case!) to drag me to do something I don’t want to do…even if it is for my own good. He gives us free will to choose to trust Him, to choose to let Him hold us in His hands and lead us towards blessings. Instead we sometimes just sit looking up at Him freaking out about how we are going to get “there”
I was reading in Joshua this morning about how The Lord told Joshua to tell the priests instructions on how to get the people and the ark across the river…
Joshua 3:6, 8, 13 & 17
6 In the morning Joshua said to the priests, “Lift up the Ark of the Covenant and lead the people across the river.” And so they started out and went ahead of the people.
8 Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’”
13 The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”
17 Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.
Joshua relayed the message from God to the priests, to tell them to take a few steps…and you notice in vs 13, AS SOON AS their feet even touched the water, God moved…MIGHTILY! They took one step & He kept His promise and made it easy for them to cross the river…
What if the priests didn’t have that kind of faith and didn’t take that step into the water?... what if they freaked out & stayed pacing back & forth wondering how to cross the river?
Would they have ever made it to the promise land? Or would they have missed out on what God had for them?
Friend, when God is asking you to do something, no matter how impossible or scary it looks, no matter how much you don’t understand it…don’t miss out on what He has for you, trust Him, take ONE step, and watch Him move right before your eyes!
