By a new way…

You routinely lead me in a way I have not been before.  It’s always unfamiliar and, sometimes, maybe even uncomfortable.

Your call to a new way challenges me, but here is Your promise – “I will lead them in paths they have not known; I will make darkness light before them; and crooked places straight.  These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.*

Your fresh word, pointing to a new way, always incorporates the assurance of Your presence.

You are a living God.  Present, active and engaged.  You go before us in the journey/battle, You fight for us in the midst of it, and disarm and defeat the enemy.  But the wonder doesn’t stop at simply watching You at work.  Your fresh word and new way birth unimagined possibilities right into the experience of living.

Faith walk

The priest’s feet were already in the river’s water before they could see the new path You were creating for them.*  You had said to Joshua that the ark of the covenant must go first and lead the way, with an observant distance between You and the people because “you have not passed this way before.”*  

Something about it seemed familiar.  A river to cross, masses of people, and a call ‘to follow’.   They had certainly crossed a river on dry ground before*, but You were very clear to them here.  “You have not passed this way before.”

Your call to them was more than just another river to cross, however.  Undivided attention, and the faith of wet feet looking for dry ground was required for them for not just the river, but for the fulfillment of generations of promises that lay on the other side.

This was the generation that would be the one that would see the fulfillment of unimagined possibilities.  When they fought, there was victory.  When they called, there was an answer.  When they stumbled, You restored.  And when they believed, the bounty of the land became theirs.

Assurance

But this is not where the story started.  There was a whole desert full of stories of learning to listen and to trust.  And from this foundation You said to them:

“Only be strong and courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.”

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”*

There was a history of seeing You work, a trust in Your commands, a standard by which to cling and now, what lay ahead, was the fulfillment.

Battles?  Yes, lots of them.  Bounty? Yes, abundant.  But what they really had was the assurance of Your presence in a way they had not been before.

And with that, came courageous, focused followers.

Choices

When Your word is fresh, and the way is new, but a gapping hole seems present between what I feel and what You promise, You have a plan.  You have a plan for me.  Unimagined possibilities lay ahead.  

Battles? Yes.  Bounty?  Abundant.  But they are, neither one, encountered alone.  You fulfill this truth – “I will not leave you nor forsake you.”*  

This is a way I have not been before; unfamiliar, and uncomfortable.  But You will lead in the paths I have not known.

Unimagined possibilities.  “And Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.””*.

* Clicking on *’s will open a new web page providing the indicated reference.