Following God to our promised land

I'm really not getting paid by Beth Moore or LifeWay to promote her Bible Studies, but once again I find the content speaking into my life exactly where I am today.

A friend who I met when I had just recommitted my life to Christ recently blessed my husband and I with 2 copies of the Believing God workbook, and the set of audio cds with the weekly sermon. I just started Week 1 and am already touched by the way God is speaking into my life.



The premise of the Bible study is not just Believing God in terms of Faith as a noun, as in,

"Yes, I have faith in God. I believe in Him."

but having present-active-participle-verb type belief, as in,

"I continually believe God as a daily way of life, in every situation,
because I know He is Who He says He is,
and He can do what He says He can do."

Part of this morning's reading was Hebrews 11, and certain verses stood out to me in a new light:

v8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country;
he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
For he was looking forward to the city with foundations,
whose architect and builder is God.

v 13-16 All these people were still living by faith when they died.
They did not receive the things promised;
they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.
And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
If they had been thinking of the country they had left,
they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them.

I think these verses struck me afresh because I had just been talking yesterday with one of the CDTS students, Cheryl Cook from Canada (check out her blog!), about the early days of YWAM Arua. I had never been to Arua before God called us here; John had only passed through once. The others who helped pioneer the base had never been here.

Yet God told us to come...so we did.

For two and a half years we lived in a grass-thatched hut with no indoor-plumbing or mod cons. Not exactly a tent, but not far from it.

It was hard, that's true, but we never thought of returning to the countries we'd left behind...we knew God had called us here...this was our 'promised land' and our inheritance.

And our eyes have been fixed on that heavenly country...the one where there is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more ghecko droppings landing on our pillows.

We have made our home literally as strangers in a foreign country, and we will remain here until God says to move on. His plan is perfect, and although there are physical discomforts, the spiritual blessings are innumerable. We can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us.

I want to be counted among the number of whom 'God is not ashamed to be called their God.' I don't want God to be ashamed of me...I want Him to be glorified and lifted high in my life, and when I get to that heavenly city He has prepared for me, I want to enter it with joy and hear my Father say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Yes, the road will be hard. Yes, there will be pain. But please, Lord, help me to appropriate your Grace which is sufficient for every situation. You are worthy, Father.