The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…

I leave for India a week from tomorrow, and I’m getting so excited!  Excited to see my husband (yay!!!!), excited to start this journey, and excited to see what God is going to do.

I came across a passage a few weeks back that really challenged me, so I put a daily reminder on my calendar at work that pops up each morning when I’m sifting through emails.  It’s from the book of Deuteronomy. 

 ⁶ Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. ⁷ For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

 ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

 ¹⁹ If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

This passage reminds me to keep my eyes focused on God and remember that it’s Him who delivers and blesses me.  Whatever blessings and lessons come out of the next few months, I have to be so careful to remind myself that God is the author of it all.  It’s not my strength that will get me through this time.  It’s not my family, my friends, my health, my knowledge, or anything else of me.  If God allows me to see people in India come to faith, it’s not my words or presentation of the gospel that changes hearts.  If we’re able to help people financially, it’s not my generosity that leads me to give (our hearts are wicked) or my strength that produced the means to give (God’s provided an education and job for us).  God is the one leading me to a new land, and God is the one who will sustain me and grow me.  He’ll lead me through the wilderness into a good land (India will seem strange at first but will become my home very soon), provide daily manna (physical sustenance and His word, my daily bread), and allow me to eat and be satisfied (experience Him and be a part of the work He’s doing).  My only response should be to praise Him for the blessings!