Are you going forward in your Christian life? Are you learning to trust God more with each day and with your future? If we’re not going forward, then we are not living the life God wants for us.
This stuck me yesterday in more than one reading. The first was in Numbers 13. God told Moses to send spies out to check out the land He had promised to give them. God’s aim, I’m sure, was to encourage them with how good the land was and also to see what was in their hearts and whether they trusted Him.
The twelve spies, one from each tribe, came back with their report. Yes the land was a land flowing with abundant good things but they didn’t want to go forward because they were terrified of the people already in the land.
Of the twelve only two, Joshua and Caleb, believed God was able to overcome all obstacles and lead them into the land as He had promised.
I’m sure we all know what happened. Israel refused to enter the land and as a result spent forty years in the wilderness because they refused to trust God and go forward. Of that generation only Joshua and Caleb entered into the Promised Land.
The other example came from a reading in John 9. John is my favorite gospel. Jesus put a paste of saliva and mud on the blind man’s eyes and tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Remember at this stage the man is still blind, but he picked himself up and went forward as Jesus commanded. The result? He came back seeing. What if he had not obeyed? Would he still have been healed? I suspect not. Obedience and trusting Jesus was the key.
So often we can’t see the way ahead. It may all be darkness but if the Lord has told us to do something then we need to do it. If we are not moving forward in our Christian life and acting in obedience to God then we are really going backwards.
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