God never
Joshua 22:8, “…Return to your tents with great riches and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and with very many clothes ; divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” 9 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home and departed from the sons of Israel at Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession which they had possessed, according to the command of the LORD through Moses.”
The children of Israel had followed Moses through the wilderness for forty years, but just before reaching the Promised Land a group of them came to Moses and said, “We don’t want to go into the Promised Land; give us this land here.” I imagine Moses scratched his head, rolled his eyes, and thought to himself”What?” But then he said “OK, if this is all you want you got it. But the Land that God promised is so much better than this good land.”
When I read this story I think about the story of the prodigal son. Jesus told the story in Luke 15 of a young man who came to his father, and said “Give me my inheritance now, so I can go live my life.” I imagine there was some head scratching going on there to, but the father gave the son what he asked for; even though he knew what would’ve come to him was a lot better.
God will never force us to take what we don’t want. One of my favorite pictures that you see in a lot of churches has Jesus standing at a door knocking waiting for the person inside to answer. God will never force us to come to Him! Revelations 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
God knows that He has a better way for us to follow, and He freely offers that way to us through the grace of His Son, but He will never force us! We can choose the good, or we can enter His Promised Land.
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Father God, I thank You for offering me Your Promised Land, and I ask that You remind me no matter how good the land in front of me looks Your promises are infinitely better. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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Yes, You Can Ministry 