Friday, February 19, 2016

February 20, 2016

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left,that you may be successful wherever you go." Joshua 1:6-7
It was about 250 miles from Egypt to Canaan. Moses added to the distance by leading them around the territory of the Philistines.
But in reality, they were no further from their Canaan than you are from yours!
How so?
The real distance from Egypt to Canaan was eighteen inches. That's right, eighteen inches! That's the distance between your heart and your head! You must believe in your heart what you know in your head! You must commit to what you believe and believe what God says! 
Forty years earlier Moses had led God's people to the verge of Canaan but they failed to match their head with their heart and they doubted God. They missed crossing the Jordan and entering Canaan by just eighteen inches.

When the 10 spies returned from scouting out the spoils of Canaan they regaled the people of all the wonders they had discovered throughout the land. But, they said, "There are giants in the land and we look like grasshoppers in their eyes! It is a wonderful land but we can't defeat them."

So, when they said, "We can't take this land did they really mean, God can't take it?"

If that's what they meant they were a full eighteen inches from Canaan!

Perhaps they meant, "We can't believe God will use us to do this."

That is equally problematic. That's not just an eighteen inch problem it is also a nine inch problem - the space between their ears. 

In the final analysis, whether they missed Canaan by eighteen inches or by nine inches they still missed it and subjected themselves and two millions of other Israelites to return to four decades of wandering in the wilderness. Many of them would never make it back to Canaan because they would die in the desert.

The wilderness mindset keeps more people out of the Promised Land than just about anything else I know of. Canaan people call upon God to help them take "I CAN'T" out of their vocabulary.

How many things in your life have been destroyed or seriously damaged by the "I CAN'T" mindset:

  • Your marriage, when you said, "I CAN'T forgive?"
  • Your self-control when you said, "I CAN't resist?"
  • Your career when you said, "I CAN'T do this job?"
  • Your self-discipline when you said, "I CAN'T quit this habit?
The God Who brought you out of Egypt CAN bring you into Canaan if you can change your "I CANT'S" to "I CANS". 

Can you?

Will you?

Wouldn't it be a shame to miss Canaan by nine inches?