Ready, Set, Go Home
What God might be trying to tell you in quarantine
I’ve never had a clear-cut miracle before. I always wanted one, but it’s never happened. Through all my years sitting in church and even leading a church myself, I would hear stories of people being healed of sickness, having addiction broken off their life in an instant, or a relationship restored at the snap of a finger. It was amazing to witness and occasionally be a part of, but I’ve never personally had one of those moments. It doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen, but to date, all of the miraculous things I’ve seen happen in my life a part of God taking me through a greater process, which I only usually see after all has happened.
When I first accepted Jesus into my life, I was a self-made garbage pile of a human. I won’t go into too much detail, but there were a lot of things I would say I was addicted to that I remained addicted to after praying to God to save me. I had to go through the process of learning to live the new way God was calling me to live, but because of that process, I know I won’t relapse into any of those things again.
In a similar way, the company I work for helps people struggling to get out of debt by teaching them to manage their money and slowly pay it off little by little, we don’t pay a cent of what they owe, and most of those people never struggle with money again.
It’s the process that creates the product
I think we can all agree, God is not an idiot. Sure, there are times where we want Him to simply remove something from our lives, or there are times when our lives can seem so out of control we start to question His existence, but ultimately, our faith helps us to trust that God knows what He’s doing with our lives.
He has a process, we can’t always see it, it doesn’t always feel good, but in the end, it’s for our benefit. These days that we’re spending in our homes — quarantined from the world, confused, anxious, fearful — these days don’t feel great. So far, I’ve had three short panic attacks since we went into lock-down, and they were each surprising because I’ve never had a panic attack in my life. It’s easy to find ourselves questioning God about what He’s doing in these days, why He’s letting these things happen, and what are we meant to do about it all.
I’ve got an idea, but you’re not going to like it.
Looking to God’s word is always a great place to start when you’re questioning what’s going on in the world around you. I’ve been looking at the Old Testament stories of Israel wandering the desert, and incredibly, I think I’m starting to see some encouraging links to what we’re going through today.
Wondering in the wandering
When I read about the Israelite's, I feel genuinely bad about how often people point out their failures and flaws and yet, we’re not all that different. In Numbers 13, Moses sends spies into the Promised Land to scope out the lay of the land and to get a heads up on who they’re going to have to fight when they get there.
It’s important to note that these spies weren’t going to find out if they could do it, they were going to find out how they would do it.
Instead, the spies come back, stir up fear within the people, and in Numbers 14, God sends Israel off into the desert for forty years to wipe out the generation that was meant to claim the land. Seems kind of harsh right?
This is where God’s wisdom comes into play. God originally was going to wipe the whole nation out, but at the request of Moses, He sends them off into the desert. Have you ever considered why He did this?
The Israelite’s had spent several generations in slavery, but they were originally a nomadic people. The generation God chose to take the Promised Land, instead chose to take fear into their ranks because they still had the mindset of slaves.
God in his goodness, wanted his people to inherit the promises He had given them, but He also knew that people who were trapped in the mindset of the past, would never be able to step into the promises of the future.
And so they wandered. They wandered so long that an entire generation of people born into slavery passed away in the desert and a new generation, born as nomads, were able to rise up and take the promises of God.
What does this have to do with you today?
Sure, a fair question. We’re barely able to wander around our own property, being able to wander an entire desert sounds wonderful right about now. The pattern has some similarities though, doesn’t it? God is resetting some things in our lives, our families, and our churches. God could be on the brink of allowing us to step into an entirely new way of life, but we must wander the ‘desert’ isolation — the time spent in quarantine — with learning and allowing God to reset the things in our lives that need addressing.
What that looks like for you could be completely different for me, but it’s incredibly important that we’re open to growing and learning. Entering into the “what” God has for you isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. We can only cross over into God’s promise once we’ve grown out of the wrong thinking and stepped into the new.
It could be a greater prayer life, a consistent habit of reading your bible, it could be putting down your devices and picking up more family time. Perhaps you feel a call to get engaged with the neighbors around you (at a safe distance, of course). It’s not always the ‘super-spiritual’ stuff that we need to do in seasons like this, sometimes it’s as simple as learning to trust God more in the smallest ways.
The choice is yours
This time will pass, this world will slowly go back to normal, life will get better, and you will be able to resume the life you lived before. The choice to change, however, is completely up to you.
God will take us through this season, but He won’t force us to change, only we get to make that choice.
My prayer for the sake of your family, your children and future generations is that this time is used to reset, create better habits, grow deeper in Christ, and pass those things on to those around us. Don’t wander this desert without a purpose; learn, grow, develop and most of all, get excited for what God is going to do next as we step towards His future promises.
I hope this reading is an encouragement to you. If you’re after some advice on a particular subject, please let me know as I would prefer to write what’s relevant to my readers. God bless.
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This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.
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