Wednesday, April 14, 2010

God Made A Promise

He doesn't need me to figure out how to make it happen.


Joshua 3:1-5   Early the next morning Joshua and all the Israelites left Acacia Grove and arrived at the banks of the Jordan River, where they camped before crossing.

2 Three days later the Israelite officers went through the camp, 3 giving these instructions to the people: "When you see the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, move out from your positions and follow them. 4 Since you have never traveled this way before, they will guide you. Stay about a half mile behind them, keeping a clear distance between you and the Ark. Make sure you don't come any closer."

5 Then Joshua told the people, "Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do great wonders among you."

Joshua 3:13-17 The priests will carry the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall."

14 So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15 It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's edge, 16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

17 Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the LORD's Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

Joshua 4:15-18 The LORD had said to Joshua, 16 "Command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to come up out of the riverbed." 17 So Joshua gave the command. 18 As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the LORD's Covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before.

Look across the river over there, that's the land that the Lord has promised to give us, it looks like a nice place but there is something big that stands between us and what God has promised. That water is moving fast, this is not the right time of year to move our cattle across the river, and look at that little foot bridge over there, it would take a few years for all of us to cross the river on that thing.

Great big problems can stand in between us and what God wants to give us, that raging river was nothing for God, if God has made a promise then you can stop looking at the raging river. The Israelites camped out next to that river for three days and they must have looked at that river and thought "Wow, we are going to get wet" or perhaps they thought that God was going to have them camp out right there until the rainy season was over.

God has already seen the raging rivers in our lives and he already knows the way to get us to the other side, the nation of Israel didn't realize that God's power was about to be displayed in their life, there was only one way that God's promise could come true and that is for God to provide his way.

I will trust God to come through, even if it looks like I need to help him out, I need to just wait on him to provide.

Thank you for your promises Lord, help me to trust you and to rely on you to keep your promises.