March 22, 2016

"So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there.  The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.  Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." Joshua 21:43-45

God's promises are the traffic signs and signals and guardrails that will guide you safely out of your Egypt, through your wilderness and into your Promised Land!

God's promises define what is real in your life.

God's promises define what is right in your life.

Thirdly, God's promises define what is reliable in your life.

There are several ways God teaches you what you can rely on. The first way is by showing you what you can't rely on!

In Egypt and the wilderness they could not rely on their flesh. They weren't strong enough to overthrow the Pharaoh or to open the Red Sea. They didn't have the power to produce food or water in the desert or preserve their clothing during the journey.

In Egypt and the wilderness they could not rely on their feelings. Emotions are too directly affected by circumstances and their circumstances often weren't very good! 

Another way God teaches us what to rely on is by bailing us out of our failures.

God had taught Moses through his failures. After living as a fugitive for 40 years tending sheep in the desert, God called him to leadership.

Led by a former-failure turned humble leader, God's people spent 40 years wandering in tedious circles through the wilderness because of their failures to obey Moses, submit to God and believe God's promises.

400 hundred years of slavery and 40 years of futility and frustration finally brought God's people to a place where they would rely on Him. Only when they learned they could not rely on themselves and they could rely on God to rescue them did they begin to rely on God!

Like the Hebrews and like Moses, most of us learn to rely on God's promises from relying on unreliable things like our own strength or our own emotions or our own flawed judgment.

You can rely on God's promises first time, every time, any time and all the time! Today, choose to rely on His promises and stop trusting on unreliable sources.

You can rely on that advice! I promise!