God Knows: Trudge On!

This morning I read in Deuteronomy 2:7, "For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing."  The passage resonated in me, reminding me of my own calling and slow unfolding of God's plan for our family to immigrate and serve Him in Australia.

From a human perspective, God's seems to employ painstakingly slow, inefficient means to accomplish His purposes.  In farming, the cultivation and preparation of the soul takes much longer than the actual planting.  The breaking up of sun-scorched clods and amending the soil is far greater work than the scattering of seed!  When the call to Australia came to me, my whole outlook was affected with excitement and expectation.  I did not know when, how, or where God would establish us.  I did not know the shape of the ministry He intended me to do.  All I knew was, "You will preach, and you will be sent."  I knew God had called me to be a pastor, but how it would come about was completely unknown.

The great challenge after the call was to maintain focus upon the LORD and where He had me at that current time.  The temptation was to focus on the unknowns which loomed like iron gates.  Expending time and effort trying to figure out how and when God would fulfill His Word to me proved to be a useless waste of time.  God reminded me of Yoda's rebuke of Luke Skywalker in "Empire Strikes Back."  Having no experience, never having trained, Luke was ready to take on the whole Empire himself.  Yoda shot back:  "Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing."

As a missionary in a foreign field, you must learn first at home to faithfully "suit up and show up."  How you handle the little things is an indication of how you handle bigger things.  We can foolishly think, "Well, if I was in the field I would spend more time in prayer" or "I will be more faithful when my responsibilities increase."  Stop kidding yourself.  Jesus says in Luke 16:10-12:  "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"  If you cannot be faithful to take care of something as simple as brushing your teeth daily, showing up on time every day at work, or reading the books you borrowed, how do you expect to progress spiritually?  Does God reward sloppy servants with greater responsibility?  In the grand scope of things, being prompt or brushing your teeth are very little things - but our faithfulness with the little things is a sight-glass with a view into our heart, character, and priorities.  Those who are faithful in least are faithful also in much.

The children of Israel expected to be ushered into the Promised Land without a struggle.  Had they known they would have entered the land of Canaan after 40 years of trudging through the desert, many of them would have refused to leave Egypt!  But God is looking for faithful servants who stare at 40 years in the face like nothing, set their face like a flint, and stay faithful like Caleb and Joshua - without grumbling, arrogance, or pride.  These are the men who will enter in, overcome, and be established in the land God prepared them for.  In those 40 years, God purged and refined His people.  He conditioned them to become completely dependent upon Him.  During the years of waiting and trudging, God is preparing you and the field where He is sending you.  Trudging on is not drudgery when God is with you, leading you to His expected end!

Though we are often in a hurry, God is not.  He will be true to His Word, for He is faithful.  Even when you face obstacles, detours, and apparent setbacks, God's plans are pushing forward with unstoppable force.  You will be ready when God says you are.  Set the alarm, pray, read, seek, and brush those teeth!  Be faithful in little, and God will entrust more to you according to His grace.