Where will your family “go” this year?

Ex 1:1 “These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family … “

Where will your family “go” this year? I’m not talking about vacations or college or the myriad places we dream of going, I’m talking about finding out where God wants to take your family and then stepping into it. When the sons of Israel went into Egypt they were following God’s plan – but they didn’t necessarily realize it. They were fleeing drought and famine; moving to a new land that was ruled by leaders that were off and on enemies; trusting a brother they had sold into slavery – it was not an ideal future they were moving into.

But what if one understood God’s plan for them and their families? What if one was in constant contact with God and listening to Him so that they were moving with an attitude and expectation of victory and hope? That’s what we should be doing. Seek God’s plan, share it, teach it to our kids and families and then walk into the victory and the hope. Don’t let the threat keep you from the hope. Don’t see the greatness of the vision and the possibilities of success but look harder at the “giants” that are in the way than you do at the goal and the rewards. In God’s economy giants are simply obstacles that appear larger to our human eyes than they are in reality in the face of God’s greatness and power. God’s people are those who are assured victory over giants because we are not “grasshoppers” – we are children of the King of Kings.

Got a wilderness or a famine you just want to run away from? Got some crow you have to eat and forgiveness to ask for so that you can move forward into victory? Got some forward movement and some training you need to initiate with your family so that they are ready to do the next level with God? Then go to it. 2013 could be a year of great harvest if you are willing take your families and go forward with God.

Trust Happens – 2 Sam 6-7

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”   Corrie Ten Boom   .

2 Sam 6:6-7 But when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.

Trust. Do you trust Me? Children hear that phrase and think of the Disney cartoon feature Aladdin – where the street smart Aladdin asks princess Jasmine to trust him, right before jumping out of a window with him. How often do Christians feel as if Jesus is asking them to jump first in faith and ask questions later? How often do Christians fail miserably to trust God and leap into the future He has prepared for them? Uzzah failed to take into account a very important reality; that God is true to His Word and when we fail to trust Him it costs us. In Uzzah’s case he forgot that God said the ark was holy and was only to be handled a certain way by certain people – that was the first mistake.

The second was that he failed to trust that God is able to protect His own name and all He calls sacred without the help of men. Everything about the Ark, from the gold on the outside to the miraculous items inside was created, planned and provided for by God. The skill and creativity to make the Ark was provided by God as well. This was an item meant to show man that God is able to care for them in a miraculous manner. It was not subject to the whims or to the protection of man. By these trust failings Uzzah forfeited his life, for God is quite serious about what He commands and desires of His people and without that trust the kingdom of Israel would fail – they existed and thrived because God was their protector. If they didn’t trust God to protect His own ark they would never trust Him to protect their own families from their enemies and they would fall to the deceitfulness of the false gods around them looking for some other to trust.

What areas are you failing to trust God in? Do you believe He is who He says He is in the Bible? Do you believe He can and will bring you out of every trouble and situation you find yourself in? Most of us don’t you know. Most of us think we are doing well if we are doing all we can to provide for ourselves and “trust” God for that little extra that will take us over the hump that our own efforts can’t quite make. Many of us trust our medicine cabinet more than we ask for God’s power in prayer. Or we trust the government to provide our rights and freedoms rather than pray to the Creator of those rights to lead and guide our governing leaders.

Most of us read the Bible and say “I don’t know of anyone who has raised the dead, cleansed lepers, healed the sick – I guess that stuff doesn’t happen today.” Or we say “Jesus said we will do greater (more) miracles than He did because the power of the Holy Spirit is with us – but I don’t have any of that power so it must be for someone else.” Are you counting yourself among the “most of us” I’ve depicted here? Then today is a good day to begin trusting God and besieging the throne room asking for His power to be manifested in YOU today. Go find a sick person and pray God will heal them. Believe that He will give someone one day free of depression because you ask it of Him. Believe that He is for you and not against you. Believe today that He is more than able to protect His name and that you can ask anything of Him and He will show you what He will do for you. Do you trust Him?