Breaking a Forty-Year Habit - One Year Devotions for Women

“When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on.’ ” - Deuteronomy 1:6

Moses reminded the Israelites that God wanted them to move on. The ultimate goal for the children of Israel was the land of Canaan, and they were not there yet. Forty years earlier, God had charged the Israelites to go and take possession of the land. They had spent forty years wandering in the desert as God dealt with their sin. They were forty years behind schedule! It was time to move in.

Some of us would have to admit that we are like the Israelites. We are behind the divine schedule—not growing as God would have us grow! We need to move on with our Christian life. The Lord is saying to us, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on”! Breaking camp is as hard as breaking a habit! Maybe we need to break camp in the matter of Bible study and prayer. Perhaps we have lost our vision of witnessing and winning the lost. Moving on requires resolve, obedience, faith, prayer and fasting, Bible study, service, fellowship, and discipleship. It’s hard to break a forty-year habit, but it can be done. Israel got moving, and God moved with the nation. God’s challenge in Moses’ day was taken up by a new generation. He was gracious enough to give them another chance.

God wants you to keep growing in your Christian life. Why don’t you break camp and move on? “You have stayed at this mountain long enough”!

For Further Study: Deuteronomy 1:1-8

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

SPECIAL OFFER