The Rocky Road into the Promised Land

I don’t know about you but I can easily pull from a pool of memories – times when two words were enough to send my heart into a flutter and a flurry. For years, I had scriptures posted to our refrigerator as a way of helping my heart hold fast to the promises of God as I waited, and waited, and waited…

Seems hard to believe it’s already been better than 4 years since we closed the doors on our home down south and made our trek to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  A thousand miles later and we find ourselves still making our way into our promise land. What can I say? I would love to say the road has been a stream of posies popping up everywhere our feet have landed. I would love to tell you that after years of waiting for that moment that we’d be released to embark on this journey, everything just came together and has fallen into our laps like a feather dropping from heaven. I wish. Do I ever wish.

Don’t get me wrong – this transition has been blessed in many ways. We have watched God bring things together and work in situations like only He can. We’re seeing provisions made manifest. We’re getting glimpses into blessings being conferred. Yet, mixed with these things, have been challenges and tragedies alike – things that can’t be undone and things, admittedly, my heart hasn’t fully learned how to carry or let go of just yet (though I know I WILL get there). It’s incredible how much life can change in a day, isn’t it? Seeing firsthand how much it can change in a month is exhilarating and frightening all at the same time.

So, here I sit in my journey into our Promised Land – eager, anxious, grateful and exhausted, desperately praying “God, just get me to the other side! Please, let the months and hurdles ahead fly by that I can find myself curled up with my family in our new home in the land You have for us!”

Ever been there?

One Book I spent much time in in the years prior to our relocation was the Book of Joshua (big surprise considering our topic of discussion, right?). So, wasting no time whatsoever, the Book of Joshua jumps right into the task at hand – getting God’s children into the promise land. Now, at some point you would think my mind would have wrapped around the fact that God was calling for two key measures of preparations as they moved ahead – consecration and a readying of their “fighting men.”

I suppose I was hopeful that the journey would be a waltz to some degree – that the doors would just start flying open and we would step in from great to grand as we finally would come to see the fulfillment of such long awaited promises and prayers.

In all honesty, God, in His grace has granted me a measure of that in some areas though, in others, I’ve seen it get downright brutal. Why? Because it is a battle. Our family has been challenged physically, mentally, spiritually, financially… yet, in all things we are more than conquerors.

See, I still believe in trusting God for big things – now as much, if not more so, than ever. I also know that the big things of God don’t always come easy. They’re the kind of things that determined hands take hold of. (Not that its a matter of our strength or power but more so that its a matter of us holding on against all odds with that bulldog tenacity that says “No! God says its mine!” Am I wrong in that? Is that not the essence of holding fast to the things of God?

I believe we each face circumstances, obstacles, challenges and situations where we are standing at the edge of the promise. We can see it. We can smell it. We can reach our quaking fingers out and just about touch it but then the battle starts raging around us and, for a moment, our hearts grow faint as we start to think “God, did you really promise? Did I really hear you right? Was this just something I made up as I went along and just put your name on it?”

If you’re there right now, can I just beg you to hold on a little longer? I know you maybe think you can’t right now. I know you’re questioning how much more you could possibly take but, I’m praying that now, in this moment, a spirit of fiery faith would well up within you and that God would stir you again to press into His promises.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I believe one of the greatest obstacles we all have to overcome in realizing our God-sized dreams is in actually allowing ourselves to believe that they’re ours to be had. As I write this, my mind goes back to a quote out of a daily devotional I used to have on my desk. One day in particular, before we’d even moved from our old home, we were really feeling the crunch of everything that was happening. We were getting things in order for the move and were just on overload. How I cherished those words as I read “God is leading you into the Promised Land. He knows the way and is even more committed to getting you there than you are.”

As hard as that can be for me to simply trust amidst the strain and the struggle, something within me just knows that there’s a sobering amount of truth to that.

It’s not about bragging rights. It’s not about God bending and flexing the world around our desires. It’s about God just being God in our lives. I hardly have the words to explain it and I don’t have to. I don’t have to know the why’s or the how’s. I simply have to muster up the resolve to just trust.

I choose to trust and press forward knowing that even when the war wages, God can and will bring to pass EVERY WORD He’s spoken over our lives.

What “promise land” has God spoken into your life? Are you daring today to trust Him for it?