Settlers

I think I know why the Children of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years.  It was because they settled.  It seems to me that the Israelites were told numerous times that God would give the land of Canaan to them, but they had to go and posses it (Deuteronomy 1:8, 21).  Instead, the Israelites settled for the Wilderness.

In the New Testament, Paul charges Timothy to, “Fight the good fight of faith” and “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” (I Timothy 6:12).  The Hebrew writer says, “Do not throw away your confidence…You need to persevere…you will receive what He has promised” (Hebrews 10:35-36).

In other words, don’t be a settler.  God offers us life—an abundant life (John 10:10, 4:14b).  Seize it.  Possess it.  Don’t let go.  Even Paul says, “I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Don’t settle for anything less.  Don’t even think about it.  If you do, the Hebrew writer has these words, “if he shrinks back, I [God] will not be pleased with him” and then he adds these empowering words, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:38b-39).