Accept the Challenge

Dear Diary,

#Accept_the_Challenge

I don’t know about you but I, me and myself are not a risk takers. At the same time I know that holding on to familiar environments and comfort zones results in wandering and failure to enjoy God’s blessings. Jabez’s prayer, “Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory!” has been my prayer yet every time I figure out an enlarged territory or sphere of influence I freak out! This morning I read Joshua chapter 1 and I felt a nudge in my spirit to write this note to encourage myself and someone out there who has settled in a comfort zone stopping short receiving the real deal “Promised Land.”

God told Joshua, “Get ready to cross the Jordan River into the Land am about to give you-Israelites,” Joshua 1:2. You might agree with me that moving into untamed and unknown territory isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. In Joshua 3:14-16 tells us that at the time the Israelites took the challenge and broke camp to cross the Jordan in to the Promised Land, the people were a brand new generation, none of them had walked in the Promised Land before and besides, the river was at its flood stage yet as soon as the feet of the priests who carried the Ark of Covenant touched the water’s edge, the water from the upstream stopped flowing. It piled in a heap, a great distance away so the people crossed over.

Do you freak out whenever God challenges you to break camp and cross over into the land of Promise? Have you been wandering in the desert because you are holding on to your familiar environment and comfort zone? How do you move from there in to His promise?

First, receive the challenge. Get ready. Break camp.

Second, recognize God’s promise and commitment. Joshua 1:3, 5, “I will give you every place where you set your foot.” In addition, “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” You and I can accept the challenge because because we recognize God’s promise and commitment-His Powerful, personal and permanent presence with us.

Third, be intentional to obey God’s command, v. 7. Do as God directs you.

Yours faithful scribbler,

NzakuNashipae