Taking the long way home...

The trip to the promise land could have been shorter than it actually took the Israelite to get there. This is common knowledge to anyone who has studied the Old Testement or even anyone who has gotten the curiosity to look at a map of their journey (and if you haven't take a look below). God led them on what we'd call "the long way." Then they differed their arrival by living in fear, rather than in faith, and wasted 40 more years.

Here's what I've put together today: Our "promised lands" are going to take a predetermined time. God is working his brilliance, aligning everything and everyone to fit in with the proclaiming of His glory. There could be a shorter way for us to get to what he has promised, but then how would we grow our trust in him and deepen our reliance on him? I've thought of ways to already be there by things that I maybe could have done different, but the wisdom of God comforts my heart to know that this "long way" is the way of his drawing me closer to him, and every step away from my "promise land" is one step deeper in intimacy with him.

Obedience is a way of freedom. It is a way of walking in his illumination as opposed to wandering in the darkness or in the desert.

In Prince Caspian, when Lucy saw Aslan in the forest and knew that he wanted her to follow him, she had no way of knowing how get over to where she had seen him. And then when no one believed her, she caved and didn't pursue him on her own. The result was the entire group finding themselves in danger, wasting time, only to find themselves back where she had said she'd seen Aslan and finding a way that was much safer to where they needed to be. Aslan later challenged Lucy that she should have followed even if no believed her. The first time I read that, I thought,"I would have gone after him! Even if no one really believed me, you couldn't have talked me out of what I had seen." It's true. I can't even talk myself out of what I've seen.

How quickly fear will talk us out of believing the promises of God.
How fast we are to doubt the fact that God's wisdom that we've prayed for hasn't been given.
If we give in we waste valuable time and God has to clean up our mess.
If we hold fast to the trust the God is faithful, all goes according to His original plan and timeline.

Because the thing is- what God has promised he will do. Nothing we do will defer him from being faithful. We can cause ourselves to have to wait longer, wandering and circling while he realigns the dominoes, but he will deliver every promise exactly as he has promised it. (Joshua 21:43-45)