Chapter 16
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 AMP)
After publishing this Bible study for five years, you’d think the process would run smoother and I’d have the nitty-gritty details down to an exact science. My understanding of technology has increased tremendously. However, on a scale of one to ten, I started at minus fifteen, leaving only one direction to go. While my knowledge of the mechanics has improved, I still hesitate every time it comes to posting the next lesson because, inevitably, a minor glitch will delay the procedure by hours. If it should take fifteen minutes, it will take five hours—the new Hendricks’ law of Web mastery. Like a whiney child, I want it done now. I don’t want to break out into a sweat. I don’t want to pull my hair out. I don’t want to search for the answer and perhaps climb to number two on the scale of webmaster knowledge. I want God to intervene and correct the problem without any further delay or aggravation or sweat on my part.
The Hebrew children must have felt much the same way about possessing the land. They had fought or at least participated in battle after battle as God handed them the victory after victory. Then the time came for them to occupy their inheritance. But they hesitated and complained the enemy wasn’t driven out completely. The land needed cleared, plowed, and sown. Perhaps they didn’t want to break out into a sweat to drive out the remaining previous occupants, or wear calluses on their hands from plowshares. They wanted God to intercede and miraculously do the work for them.
For seven years, they fought together as a nation. They knew what to expect from one another and relied on God’s protection. Finally, the time had come for them to separate into their family tribes and claim their inheritance. However, at the threshold of receiving all that God had promised, they hesitated. Uncertainty mingled with the unfamiliar and almost paralyzed them. Then Joshua asked the Israelites, “How long will you be slack to go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?” (Joshua 18:3 AMP) He formulated a plan, sent scouts to survey the land, and divided the land by lots among the remaining seven tribes. The individual tribes moved ahead, and as He had done for the past seven years for the nation, God defeated the enemies of each tribe, enabling them to claim the land.
We may be part of a church that experiences God’s presence and strength. However, we may find it more difficult to trust God to deliver us on a personal level. Our joy isn’t complete until we claim all that God has given us and set it apart for His glory.
The Apostle Paul held on to what he had attained, while working for and looking forward to that which he had yet to possess—eternal life with Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.” (Philippians 3:13-14 AMP) Paul committed his body, soul, and mind to his eternal inheritance and determined to open the path for others to follow.
God has called us to the same purpose. How long will we, not the church as a whole, but we as individuals, be slack to go in and possess the land that the Lord, the God of our fathers, has given us? Why do we hesitate?
Our bodies—Christ’s body.
1. Many of us spend more time and money maintaining our physical bodies than what is spent working. Even those of us, who are no longer so worried about appearance for appearance sake, spend several hours a week doing some sort of exercise just to keep our hearts pumping in a rhythm that suits our physicians. What shape would the church be in if we put forth as much effort grooming and building Christ’s body? It’s our calling to seek the lost, edify the believer, and even to correct the backslidden—possess the land.
2. Our souls are lean, but not from exercise. If we fed our physical bodies with similar amounts of food that we feed our souls with, there’d be no need for Weight Watchers or Tops. Perhaps, we’d need IV’s and feeding tubes just to stay alive. We’d be arrested and our children placed in foster care, if we tended to their physical needs the way we tend to their spiritual needs. It’s our responsibility to share Christ with the next generations and to encourage them to seek and maintain a personal relationship with Him. Our children are part of our inheritance in God’s kingdom—possess the land.
3. In this day of high technology, a myriad of activities consume our time and occupy our minds. Virtual reality games, social networks, TVs, ipods, movies, and the list is compounded daily. I fear we have laid aside our helmets of salvation and replaced them with headsets of destruction. Am I being harsh? Consider the effects this type of entertainment has on our minds. There is a great falling away of believers in our day. We no longer take the time needed to fix our minds on whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious (Philippians 4:8). Whether we consider food for our bodies or food for thought, we are products of what we consume. Overindulgence in the wrong types of food results in an unhealthy body, and likewise overindulgence in the wrong types of stimuli decays the mind. The mind is a terrible thing to waste—possess the land.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, the time has come for me to move in faith without hesitation to possess all that You have given me. Cloak me in Your armor, as I march forward into battle for the sake of my body, soul, and mind, for the sake of my children—my inheritance, and for the sake of my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ. In his name, I pray, amen.