Standing on the Bank

“They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing.” Joshua 3:1b

I love a good story, especially when I am reading the climax of something big that is getting ready to happen.  I’m tempted to flip the pages before I have read the details because this girl LOVES a happy ending.  To understand how impactful and applicable these 12 words in Joshua are, we must revisit where they have been.  Forty years ago, God promised to bring them to a new land…their land…a land full of abundance and blessings.  It would be a land they could call home, a land given to the children from their generous Father.  How they must have laid awake at night looking up at the stars visualizing setting up homes in their new land.  How they could picture their children playing among the fruit trees and chasing each other through the hills.  But this particular morning it was time to break camp, pack up their things and come to the bank of the Jordan.  As they stood there ready to receive, they must have noticed that the Jordan was flooded.  They couldn’t miss the fact that though they had been given the promise nothing could be seen on the horizon…just a view of waters too deep to pass through.  There at the bank they were in between the promise and the fulfillment.  How long would it be before there was a way to pass through?

I don’t know about you, but I have been standing on the bank waiting on a promise God gave to me 14 years ago.  I stand there ready and watching but the water has not yet receded.  I haven’t lost any faith regarding the promise because God has given me (and you) a Book of promises kept in the lives of countless followers.  The Bible is full of the ‘in-betweens’ – those living between the promise and the blessing.  My Bible study’s author shared a wonderful quote from a friend who had been waiting for many years on a promise God had given her.  She said, ‘Today, we throw hope in the trash.  We don’t hope.  We know.’  Ready – Finding the Courage to Face the Unknown, Heather M Dixon, p. 89.  That is what our backpacks must hold when standing on the bank.  Hope is good, but belief is paramount.  God has given us promise after promise in the Bible.  He has given each of us individual promises for which we must claim no matter what the deep waters boast.  Our in-between living is where faith shines the brightest.  ‘Each of our prayer requests are safely tucked away into God’s plan for you and for those you pray for.’ Ready – Finding the Courage to Face the Unknown, Heather M Dixon, p. 94.