To Attain The Promise - Avoid These Pitfalls

Our meditation for today is based on 2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” (KJV)

The Lord is able to keep us from falling, to deliver us from all kinds of hardships, to raise us up in spite of adverse circumstances, to quieten those who falsely accuse us, and He is able to do far more than we can think, ask or imagine.

Abraham waited

We read in Romans 4:21, “He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.”(GNB)

The above verse is the testimony about Abraham who trusted whole-heartedly that God who promised him would be faithful to fulfill His promise.

God has given us promises that we should move on from where we are right now to the place that God wants us to be.

Joseph waited

We have an example of this in this in the life of Joseph who at the age of seventeen had some dreams through which he perceived that God has some extraordinary plans for him. The promises of God were fulfilled only when Joseph was thirty years of age. During that period between seventeen and thirty, Joseph had to journey down a path that God had set for him.

So also Abraham received God’s call was seventy five years old, but he was a hundred years old when the promise of God was eventually fulfilled in his life. Abraham had to journey for twenty five long years in that path before he received the promise of God in its fullness.

The Israelites had to wait

The Israelites were delivered from the land of slavery in Egypt but they journeyed for forty long years before they actually entered the Promised Land.

We too must realize then that God has His timing, and in the mean time we will have to go through the path that God has set for each one of us. As we journey along this path, there will be circumstances and situations that will tempt us to opt out or walk away, but we have to be watchful to continue on in this journey that God has ordained for us.

God’s promise to the Israelites

This was the promise that God gave to the Israelites when they were in bondage in the land of Egypt.

We read in Exodus 3:8, “I have come to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good land with plenty of room for everyone. It is a land flowing with milk and honey where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites live.”(GW)

The Lord promised the people of Israel that He would take them into a good land, flowing with milk and honey, and with plenty of room for everyone. There were six lakh men who began their journey out of Egypt, but only two of those men eventually entered the Promised Land. All of them were on this journey to attain the Promised Land, but they failed in many ways, and thereby opted out of this journey.

We will look at a few things that proved to be pitfalls for the Israelites on their journey that hindered them from receiving the fulfillment of God’s promises in their lives.

All of us must believe that God has given us His promises, but we should be cautious to not fall prey to the distractions that could come our way if we wish to enjoy the realization of the same.

The Israelites complained

We read in Numbers 11:1, “The people began complaining out loud to the LORD about their troubles. When the LORD heard them, he became angry, and fire from the LORD began to burn among them. It destroyed some people on the outskirts of the camp.” (GW)

Who were these people who murmured against the Lord? They were the once at one time cried out to the Lord in desperation. The Lord heard their cries, delivered them, and was leading them on. God also did mighty signs and wonders when he snatched them out of Pharaoh’s cruel hands. He did it in such a mighty way so they would know for sure that it was God who set them free. In order to rescue them, God did not send an army, but sent a lamb. A lamb that each household had to sacrifice, and the blood of which was smeared on their doorposts and lentils. It was that blood that saved them from death and destruction.

That lamb and its blood was to symbolize the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless lamb of God who came down to the earth many years later to shed His precious blood to redeem each one of us from our sins so we too could be set free, and chose us to be a people who are His own.