March 21
Num 32:1-33:39 | PS 64:1-10 | Prov 11:22 | Luke 4:31-5:11
When is it time to kick back and take it easy in our spiritual walk? Never! Why is it that people love to reminisce about the good old days when there is still so much that we can be doing for His kingdom. Many are comfortable where they are. Perhaps comfortable with their current church, praying and reading on a regular basis. We must realize that our walk with God is a dynamic one. We are never told to be stagnant. If we are not moving forward, then we probably don’t realize that we are moving backward. If God is placing something before you, please don’t procrastinate. His will be done, but if we fail to move forward, He will choose and use someone else to receive His blessings. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Because of his mindset, Paul could say when his life truly was days away from being over on earth, in 2 Timothy 4:7, “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
For forty years the Israelites have been wandering in the desert with the destination being the Promised Land. That was their finish line. God had given them the boundaries, the directions, etc. But after conquering the two kings to the east of the Jordan River, we read the words from 2 1/2 of the tribes in Numbers 32:5, “Therefore they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.” So close, but they chose to settle. That choice, many years later would result in their being attacked first and being the first tribes to be led away into captivity. Jesus, never stopped moving forward towards His mission, as we read of a group who wanted to hold Him back, and His response in Luke 4:42-43, “Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.””
It is amazing. God doesn’t need us, but in His love, He uses us for His kingdom. God’s story, His continuous thread leading up to Jesus coming again, is moving forward, and nothing will thwart God’s timing. The question is what part will we play in His story. May none of us stop from pressing forward until He calls us home, not a moment sooner.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: