“The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” Deuteronomy 11:10-12
A brother in the faith this past week told me of a time when he went into business with his brother. After a few years the business failed and he lost a lot of money in the process. In retrospect, he questioned God on the failure of the business and it came to him that God had not initiated the business—he had along with his brother. God told him that day, “that what man initiates, man must sustain, but what I initiate I will sustain”. It is a powerful testimony of a very practical principle. Now for the million dollar question: if God has unlimited resources of divine provision, how is it that we his children ever go lacking? This is a good question. I must tell you that I have wrestled with this issue also and it is a frustrating place to be in. Here it is you think that you are following the will of God for your life but you still experience lack in areas of your life. I think the answer lies in the principle stated earlier which essentially becomes an issue of trust. As a result of circumstances, many of us rush ahead and try to make our own way. I am guilty of this that is why I know. But to receive the blessings of obedience, you must trust God as your source. So if you are feeling frustrated and hopeless because you have yet to master this principle, you are in company with many others of the faith. Our brother Paul experienced this place while writing to the church at Corinth (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Our brother Job lost everything he had before God stepped in and restored him double for his “trouble” (see Job 42:10). Daniel seemingly was a steak dinner to a den of lions, until morning came (see Daniel 6:16-20). I think you get the picture. When God initiates something, we experience his power and ability used on our behalf in situations that we would otherwise lose our sanity in. This is the grace of God. Using my own life as an example, I think about when I strived for financial gain through my career. I wanted to have the best for my growing family. All good and fine, but was I using what I had to be impactful for the kingdom? Unfortunately, that is a whole other issue. You see living a saved life in your own corner of society is not good enough. Just to tithe to your local church and show up every Sunday is not all of what God has in mind for you. God has called each of us to be a peculiar people and a royal priesthood (see 1 Peter 2:9). So it sounds to me we need to be different than our surroundings. How do you do that? Well you do that by launching out into the deep to trust God to sustain what he has purposed for you in your life. You do that by breaking through your comfort zone and leading a small group instead of just attending church. You do that by witnessing to your unsaved co-worker instead of laughing at the tasteless water cooler banter. Look, he chose you before the foundations of the world and he knows what he wants you to do (see Ephesians 1:4). Let him be the initiator. We need to be set apart and not blend in with the creature comforts we find society indulging in. When God gave Israel the Promised Land he wanted them to understand that what they were about to receive was because he was good--not through their goodness. He was going to bless them through the covenant that was made long before they were even born. And what they were going to receive was so much more different than anything they had ever experienced. When we follow God and turn our hearts away from ourselves and our own desires, God will give us a possession that he will sustain. It might be a relationship, or a financial blessing, or any number of blessings God can grant us. He has already given us the greatest possession of all in his son Jesus, what else could he withhold? (see Matthew 7:11) All we have to do is obey what he is telling us to do. Jesus wants to work through you and me to reach a dying world. In obeying God’s will for our lives we will have to “pass up” some of the things that our society embraces. And that is ok because God is preparing us to receive a possession that he will sustain and it will be nothing like we have ever experienced before.