It may be a geographical location, relationship, employment or a state of mind. Once a year my Father would come to visit my family. I would always ask him to stay longer because I loved our special time. He would always reply, “Sandra, I love being with you but guests are like fish, they can start to smell after three days.” Like Cinderella at the ball, we have all stayed long enough somewhere.
The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the LORD swore he would give to your fathers-to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-and to their descendants after them. (Deuteronomy 1:6-8 6)
The people of Israel stayed long enough at the mountain when God told them it was time to go to in the direction that would lead them to the “Promised Land.” You may wonder why God said they stayed long enough? The more important question you should ask yourself is, where is God saying, “you have stayed long enough?” There are four hindrances that may be keeping you from moving on.
Perhaps the greatest hindrance to moving on is a concern for your comfort. The people of Israel camped and lived at the foot of Mt. Sinai (Horeb) for eleven months. Time had allowed the people to settle into a life of ease. They had adapted to their surroundings and life was good. If that is true of the people of Israel then, how much more is it true of us? Living for more than eleven months with the Covid-19 pandemic has been a time of adaptations, changing how you define your comfort zone. Many of you have adapted and found a new level of comfort in working from home, home schooling your children, watching church via Zoom and You Tube, having doctor appointments online and having groceries delivered to our door. When most of the world population gets vaccinated and this pandemic is behind us, how will you define your comfort? Will you continue to remain in your new comfort zone or will you reach out and love your neighbor?
A second hindrance to moving on is fear. The greatest fear of all is the fear of the unknown. Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. And the problem is that you would rather hold on to what you have than trust God with your future. You may have a hard time giving up control of your lives. This reminds me of a story of a little girl named Hannah. She had a plastic pearl necklace she loved so much that she wore it every day. One day when her Dad came home from a business trip, he asked her, “would you give me your pearls?” She said, “I love you Daddy, but I can’t give you my pearls, I love them too much. ”Upon his return from the second business trip, he asked her again, would you give me your pearls?” She thought about it awhile and said, “Yes Daddy, I love you more than my pearls and I will give them to you.” When she gave them to him, he opened his briefcase and handed her a red velvet case that contained a real pearl necklace. He explained to her that he bought them for her on the first business trip but he couldn’t give them to her until she let go of the plastic ones. Like Hannah’s earthly Dad, our heavenly Dad cannot give you His best gift until you let go and let God!
A third hindrance to moving on is that we tend to glorify the past, and the past tends to become a glorified imagination. The people of Israel, like many of us, longed for the “good ole days.” The “good ole days” for the people of Israel meant being in slavery and bondage in Egypt. And when we stop to consider our “good ole days,” there were tough times as well. Is your past keeping you from a better present and future? Lingering in the past is not worth the risk of missing out on what God has planned for you. If you find yourself spending more time looking in the rearview mirror instead of the windshield, it is time for a change! Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, but today is a gift, and that is why it is called the present!
A fourth hindrance to moving on is maintaining the same attitudes that have caused us to fail before. The children of Israel were only three days out of Egypt when the people began to complain, and nearly forty years later, they still are complaining. They allowed a critical spirit to stop their spiritual growth. In some churches today there is a critical spirit that is trying to divide instead of unite the children of God. Having a complaining spirit reminds me of a phrase that says, “when you complain, you will remain and when you praise, you will raise.” What will your choice be, to complain or to praise?
Christians, like the people of Israel, are called to “go in and possess the land.” We are called to actively pursue the Great Commission that Jesus Christ left us here to do, “To go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And the transformation of the world begins with each one of you listening to Jesus when He says, “you have stayed long enough.”