Traded It In

Yesterday afternoon I was treated to an unexpected gift.  An afternoon thunderstorm.  The sky turned very dark and gray.  All three boys laid down for a nap and sacked out for a couple hours.  I had options.  I decided the unmade beds and floors that needed to be swept and vacuumed could wait.

While we ate lunch yesterday I had cleaned out my microwave.  I just put a coffee cup of water inside and microwave the water for 5 minutes.  Then you let it sit a few minutes.  I take a hot, soapy rag and the inside cleans up in a snap.

So I reheated a cup of coffee and filled the mug the rest of the way with hazelnut creamer.  I lit my candles.  I turned on the fire and cranked the heat up.  And I sat in my chair and read my Bible.  During this time I was also baking the slice and bake chocolate chip cookies.  The air in my house smelled like pure chocolate heaven.

The boys all woke up and we took a family trip to the doctor.  They took a few of my Ben Franklin's, told me we had three cases of bad colds on our hands and bid us good day.  Ouch.

This last thing I just have to share with you because it is so good. 

"I will give you every place where you set your foot, as promised." 

Joshua 1:3

Besides the literal ground still unoccupied for Christ, there is before us the unclaimed and unwalked territory of God's promises.  What did God say to Joshua?  "I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised."  Then He set the boundaries of the Land of Promise-all theirs on one condition: they must march across its length and breadth, measuring at off with their own feet.

Yet they never marched across more than one third of the land, and as a consequence, they never possessed more than that one third.  They possessed only what they measured off and no more.

In 2 Peter 1:4 we read, "He has given us his very great and precious promises."   The land of God's promises is open before us, and it is His will for us to possess it.  We must measure off the territory with the feet of obedient faith and faithful obedience, thereby claiming and appropriating it as our own.

How many of us have ever taken possession of the promises of God in the name of Christ?  The land of His promises is a magnificent territory for faith to claim by marching across its length and breadth, but faith has yet to do it.

Let us enter into and claim our total inheritance.  Let us lift our eyes to the north, south, east, and west and hear God say, "All the land that you see I will give to you."  (Gen. 13:15)

Wherever the tribe of Judah set their feet would be theirs, and wherever the tribe of Benjamin set their feet would the theirs, and so on.  Each tribe would receive their inheritance by setting foot upon it.  Don't you imagine that as each tribe set foot upon given territory, they instantly and instinctively felt, "This is ours?"

An elderly black man who had a wonderful testimony of grace was once asked, " Daniel, how is it that you exhibit such peace and joy in your faith?"  "Oh, sir!" he replied, "I just fall flat on God's 'very great and precious promises,' and I have all that is in them.  Glory! Glory!"  One who falls flat on God's promises knows that all the riches abiding in them are his.

The marquis of Salisbury, an English statesman and diplomat, upon being criticized for is colonial policies, replied, "Gentlemen, get larger maps."

-Streams In The Desert, February 25th