The Good Land

“So it’s paramount that you keep the commandments of God, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him. God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes...It’s land where you’ll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head…make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God, the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness...…in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you” De 8:6-16 (The Message).

When the Bible uses the word paramount we had better sit up a little straighter in our chairs, and pay closer attention than usual. Since the beginning of time man has lived in the tension between knowing God in the calm, but intimately experiencing Him in the challenges. During calm times we tend to live out our relationship from a ‘knowing God’ stand point. We have what we need and a lot of what we want so our fellowship with God tends to be more of habit and history. When these are things that motivate our time with God we are missing out on experiencing the intimate person of God. But when the phone call comes or the paycheck stops, we are suddenly driven to our knees hungry for His presence and thirsty for His comfort. Our passage tells us that the importance of fellowship with God is not only the self-discipline of keeping His commands, but the reverential awe of what He is doing in every season. We are told that whatever road God is leading us down has a good destination of blessing after blessing, fullness of bounty and life.

God is going to lead us through tough times to get to the good stuff. The good land is made up of a new heart full of compassion for what others are experiencing. It is a land flowing with opportunities of service showing the love of Christ to others. It will be a land where we will never want for anything because we have lost our earthly appetite for most things. Our tough roads to get to that land will be worth it so that we will be prepared and purposeful people. Our tough roads are where ministries are born, and parched hearts are comforted. It is where we encounter the God of our world and experience the power of the Creator.

It is paramount that we walk down the roads He leads us, and live out every command that He gives us. Our hearts must be committed to give God the respect and worship in all seasons that He deserves. Then one fine day we glance over our shoulder at the desert behind us, and the good land before us.