Heart and Soul Messages

How long is your journey going to be?

We are all on a journey – a journey to be better at our jobs, a journey to be a more involved parent, a journey to take better care of ourselves, or perhaps you are still in school or college, and your journey is to get that degree.  If you are a believer, you are on a journey to be more like Christ.  And God gives us missions throughout our life – missions to help us be more like Christ, but to also be an encourager, a teacher, a guide and an example to those He has placed around us.

Have you ever considered what your mission may be?  If you don’t know, ask Him.  He will definitely start leading you.  But here’s the thing.  Once you ask and He starts leading, you have to move.  And you have to move in obedience.  

Moving in obedience sounds great.  And sometimes it can even sound too simplistic and easy. And some types of obedience are easy, or it may come naturally.  When you are in your comfort zone or in a place of using your natural abilities, doing that for the Lord is not a big challenge.

Funny thing about a journey, though, is most of the time your comfort zone doesn’t come along for the ride.  In fact, a comfort zone tends to be a stationary place while a journey is fluid.  Obedience in that kind of journey isn’t as easy.  In fact, it can even be scary because you are having to go places you may not know.  You may have to encounter tasks and assignments where you don’t feel equipped to handle what’s required.

Abraham went on a journey.  In fact, God called him on a journey and didn’t even tell him the destination.  Abraham went anyway. He was obedient.

Moses, on the other hand, did what God asked of him in leading God’s chosen people out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land.  But this is where a few issues came up.  See, at one point, God told Moses to speak to the rock for water to flow.  Moses instead struck the rock.  He did it how he wanted to – not what God wanted him to do.  Because of that disobedience, it changed the course of what was to happen, and Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land.

If you pull up a map, you will see that the walking distance to the Promised Land was 6 days.  But because of the disobedience of the people, and the disobedience of Moses, that 6 day journey became a 40 year journey.  Not trusting God, not being obedient, and not being submissive caused a short journey to be way more than what was originally intended.  And the blessings that were to come skipped that generation.

Which brings me back to my question.  How long is your journey going to be?  Are you going to be obedient and submissive to God’s will in your life and take the steps as He prepares?  Or are you going to strive and dig your heels in and try to do it some of His way and some of your own which will make your journey so much longer than it should have been in the beginning?

Our God loves us.  Our God knows what is best for us. And He has a mission and a journey for every one of His children.  We are to be faithful and walk the journey.

While you may not know the entire itinerary of the journey, may you trust the Lord who does.  May you walk in obedience – however scary – and may your journey be 6 days and not 40 years.