Taking hold of what God has for you

Does God really want to bless me?  Does he really have something good in store for me?  Will he really keep his promises to me?

Sometimes, we really struggle with these questions, and it keeps us from taking hold of the good things God has in store for us, whether it’s a job, a husband or wife, or whatever it may be.

And that’s what the Israelites seemed to be struggling with.  They had won many victories.  But even after all those victories, they didn’t take possession of the land that God had intended for them.

It’s not clear why.  Perhaps they were satisfied with what they had.  Perhaps they were afraid of the unknown.  Perhaps they were afraid of the struggles ahead they would face as they battled people stronger than they.

Whatever the reason, they hesitated.  And so Joshua confronted them about it, and said,

How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? (Joshua 18:3)

He then gave them instructions to survey the land, and then to come back to Joshua so that he could start assigning them the land that they were to take.

How often are we like the Israelites, afraid to move forward in our lives to take the good things God has for us?  And so instead of moving out and searching, we sit and do nothing.

But if we sit and do nothing, basically nothing happens.  We need to move out in faith, believing that God has something good for us, and trusting him to guide us in the process.

For a long time, I was frustrated about finding a wife here in Japan.  I had certain ideas about how I wanted things to proceed, and things just weren’t happening.

Finally, I started making plans.  I started by making a list of the type of woman I wanted.  Then I refined that down to “What I need” and “What would be nice.”

Then I started “surveying” the field and narrowing it down to people that matched that list, and I decided on one of them to ask out.

The really weird thing was that at that point, God stepped into the process.  There was one other woman that I thought would be great, but she lived kind of far away, so I gave up on the idea and had selected someone else to ask out.

But before I had that chance, God brought the first woman right back to the front of the list.

We started writing.  Then calling.  Then she moved down to Kobe.  One year later, we were married.  We’ve now been married for six and a half years.  (I love you Satoko 🙂 )

But it all started with me making steps to take hold of the good I knew God had for me.  Had I done nothing, perhaps nothing would’ve happened.  When I started to move, so did God.

Are you frustrated by your life?  Are you frustrated that nothing’s happening?  Start planning.  Start moving.  And see what God will do in your life.