Monday, May 25, 2009

Today's Passage: Numbers 14

This chapter highlights an attitude that we all have fall into. In the vision that God shared with me for Bear creek's student ministry, He brought my attention to a simple point. Here is the first half of it: Life changes... Now I would assume that most of you would agree with that statement, yet that same number of you more than likely have found yourselves fighting to keep some part of your life the same.

Changes in life are inevitable. Whether they are the natural stages such as turning 5, 13, 16, 18, 21, 25, 40 and 55, or the more unpredictable stages like finding your future spouse, graduating from college, having kids, and retiring. With or without our consent life is constantly changing. That is why we find ourselves clinging to things that we know and can predict. You see we fool ourselves into believing that if we can predict what is next then we can control it too. Unfortunately prediction is not control, it is a false sense of security that causes us to let our guard down to change.

So how does this tie into the passage? Well God led His people into a big change. One that He promised would be well worth it if they would just trust Him. Instead of trusting Him however, they complained that they should have stayed in Egypt where things were predictable, where things required less faith, where they were "in control." We fall into this trap too, but we all know that God is the one in control not us. That is why the second part of the point is this: God's will doesn't (change).

In this story God had a plan, it was to lead His people into the promise land. His people unfortunately didn't trust His plan and they suffered the consequences. We will suffer consequences as well if we choose to seek anything other than the will of God.

Life changes, but God's will doesn't.

Trust and cling to His will and you will not fear change.