It has been long enough

Centuries ago the Israelites wandered in the desert celebrating the miracles of God one minute and forgetting all about Him the next.  Praising Him for their deliverance and then cursing Him for their “lack”.  And after reading through the first few books of the Old testament I can’t help but wonder, if we ever look as fickle and ridiculous as we sound sometimes. 

 

Because...

 

He either is My Provider or He isn’t.

 

He either is My Healer or He isn’t.

 

He either is My Redeemer or He isn’t.

 

Surely He can’t be both, can He?  Because in all fairness, we treat Him as though He were… both that is.

 

One minute we are thanking Him for providing us with our needs and the next we are crying over another obscure bill that has just come in the mail.  After the five other obscure bills that had just come before that.  Or is that just me?

 

One minute we are praising Him for ridding us of our flu (I know I am not the only one who has muttered the words, “if you just heal me it’ll be the last thing I ask for”, mid-barf) and the next we are sitting in shock over another cancer diagnosis. 

 

One minute we are sharing His goodness over the difficulties He has helped us to overcome and the next we are bottling up our emotions and hiding our faces as we endure yet another trial.

 

He either is or He isn’t, my friends. 

 

When reading in Deuteronomy the first chapter opens up with the end.  The end of the wilderness.  The end of the trials.  The end of the their wandering.  The Israelite’s finally get to have their happy ending, the Promised Land.  God speaks to them in verse six something so powerful that I almost missed it when reading it the first time, He said “‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.”  Such beautiful words.  You have stayed long enough.  Or for us, we can read it this way… it has been long enough.

 

It has been long enough wandering around in our wishy-washy Christianity.  It has been long enough doubting the very Creator who has proven Himself time and time again.  It has been long enough carrying the burdens of this world on our own.  It has been long enough rebelling against the very things we know we should be doing.  It has been long enough.

 

The Promised Land was still going to be a fight but it had been long enough.  It is time to really trust Him, to really take Him at His words.  That no matter the life circumstances, the truth of the Word is still absolute.  Whether we understand it or not, He is who He says He is.  He can do what he says He can do.  And in this season of celebrating the gruesome death of our Savior so that we could live eternally with our Father, let us not find ourselves in the same wilderness as the Israelites.  Rejoicing one day and forgetting the next.

 

He is the great I AM, so let Him be whatever it is you need Him to be. 

 

If you need a provider, He IS   (Philippians 4:19)

 

If you need a comforter, He IS   (John 14:26)

 

If you need a friend, He IS   (Proverbs 18:24)

 

If you need a healer, He IS   (Isaiah 53:5)

 

If you need a redeemer, He IS   (Isaiah 44:22)

 

If you need a savior, He IS   (1 John 1:9)

 

How many times must God prove Himself before we truly believe without doubting?  How many times must He rescue us before we trust Him completely.  How many times?  If we have forgotten then it is time to start remembering.  It has been long enough my friends.

 

 

 

James 1:5-7

If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord.