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Don’t Wait, Part Two: Missing Out on the Promise

Sisters, if you missed part one, I encourage you to go back and read it.  We discovered that the people of Israel heard conflicting reports about their Promised Land.  Moses sent out spies to check on the land.  One spy, Caleb, returned with this report: “The land is amazing.  It’s all that God said it would be.  Yeah, there are some giants there, but we can beat them with God on our side.  Let’s go occupy our land!” 

But there was another report, one that wasn’t so positive.  That report said, “There’s no way we can get that land.  Those giants are huge, and we can’t beat them.  We’re like grasshoppers to them.  We’ll get devoured in that land.”  … So, guess whose report the people chose to believe?  Let me give you a hint, it wasn’t Caleb’s.  As a matter of fact, the people wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb!  They allowed fear to take the place of their promise.  And God took notice!

“How long will these people treat Me with contempt? Will they never believe Me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?   I will disown them and destroy them with a plague.  Then I will make you [Moses] into a nation greater and mightier than they are!”  (Numbers 14:11-12 NLT)

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Don’t Wait, Part One: Grasshopper Thinking

Sisters, how you think is just as important as what you think.  If your thoughts are shaped from fear, apathy, anger, or even hate, the choices you make will not manifest blessings.  They will lead you away from what God has promised.  You’ll find yourself spinning your wheels but actually getting nowhere.  So, let’s look at a Biblical example of this very thing: the children of Israel as they leave Egypt and head toward Canaan, the Promised Land. 

God rescued them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians in miraculous fashion.  And as they were on the way to Canaan, Moses sent spies to scope it out.  The spies made it to Canaan and found that, among the things that God had promised, there were giants occupying the land.  Two of the spies (Joshua and Caleb) came back with a good report.  In Numbers 13:30, Caleb said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 

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Keep on Producing

Sisters, I want to remind you to hold on to the promises of God.  I recently had to remind myself to do just that—hold on, no matter what.  I received a phone call from my doctor’s office that, for a moment, took my breath away.  I gave myself the grace and space to feel in that moment, and then I remembered what God promised me many years ago.  I had to recite it out loud over and over.  I reached out to my tribe and asked the ladies to pray, and that’s exactly what they did. 

Sisters, we are human, so it’s important for you to allow yourself to have “all the feels” but not be led by them.  I could have driven myself crazy with worry, allowing my mind to run rampant; instead, my response was 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NKJV), “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”