HomeWord - Jan. 2, 2007

Looking at Where You've Been
This devotional was written by Kelly McFadden

“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.’ In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.” Deuteronomy 1:29-33

After living in England for a year, I had a new appreciation for rowing. One day, we convinced a friend to take us out on the boat to give it a try. We were assigned positions within the boat, and our coxswain was seated ready to guide and steer us through the River Thames. We learned how to stroke and move our bodies in rhythm with the other rowers. The hardest part for me, however, was not being able to see where we were going. My job was to row, it was the coxswain’s job to watch where we were headed. “Life’s a lot like rowing,” a friend once told me. “You only know where you’ve been.”

The Israelites had traveled through the desert for more years than they probably wished to count. Spies had been sent up to the land – the Promised Land. The journey would soon be over. Upon returning, the men reported that the people were larger and stronger, and the people of Israel were scared. They cried out to Moses and asked why God had brought them there to die. Then Moses said something that I often have to remind myself of: The gist of what he said was: Quit looking forward and being paralyzed in fear. God will fight for you! Look at all He has done in the past. He carried you in your time of need, He guided you in the darkness when you couldn’t find your way and was with you in the light when things seemed easier and clearer. Trust in the God of blessings who sees all and knows all.

We may not know what lies ahead, but we know where we have been. Wherever you are in your journey, whether a time of light or a time of darkness, God is with you. As the Israelites demonstrated to us over and over, it is often too easy to forget how God has carried us in the past when challenges face us ahead.

If you find yourself wondering where God is, or becoming paralyzed with fear over what is next, hold tight to this: The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in _______. (Fill in the blank.) God will carry you as He has done before, as He always will.

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GOING DEEPER:

1. What makes it difficult for you to fully put your trust in God when it comes to the future?

2. Make a list of at least three ways God has delivered you in the past.

FURTHER READING:

Deuteronomy 1; Psalm 13; Romans 15:13

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