“How long will you delay going out to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors gave you?” (Joshua 18:3)
This question is asked by Joshua after this next generation of Israelites had experienced the Lord split the Jordan and defeat thirty-one kings. It was asked after Caleb, who had believed God from the beginning, had at 85 years old led his family into battle to take possession of the land he had waited over forty years to possess.
This generation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that Joshua is speaking to had experienced the Lord sustaining them forty years in the wilderness. They had experienced the Lord fighting for them. They had experienced the promise keeping of their God.
Yet still, here they were, looking at the enemy between them and their fulfilled promise with fear. Choosing not to step into their promise. Choosing not to engage and take possession of what had been delivered to them by the mighty arm of their God because all they could see was the strength of the enemy.
How many times do we do the same thing? How many times do we stay stuck in life not walking in the “every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) because we don’t believe God will come through this time.
We have experienced His past faithfulness. We have seen Him come through for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We even can see the promise in front of us, but what we might have to suffer in order to obtain it has us stuck not taking possession of it.
Perhaps it is the very gospel itself. The sheer beginning of salvation by grace through faith in the name of Jesus that has some of us stuck. The doubt that the death, burial, and resurrection is even possible.
We have seen others take possession of the promise and we have seen all the enemies that have been defeated in the lives of those that have taken hold of this salvation in Christ. We have witnessed their entire family change and be set free from generations of defeat. We have even been recipients of their fulfilled promises by God and they have openly given Him glory for it all, but for us, we doubt.
We look around for all the other reasons that they must have had success. They had help we don’t have. They have will we don’t have. We have problems they don’t know about. It wasn’t “Jesus” and it wasn’t faith, it was a program, a fluke, a system, something or someone only they had access to and at just the right time. So many excuses and explanations can be found if we look hard enough.
What is standing in between you and the fulfilled promise of God? What is keeping you from taking possession of what the Lord has given you? What are you afraid of and why do you think that thing is greater than the promises of God?