“Who could I invite to a tea party?” my friend asked. I listed my closest acquaintances, eager for the success of her first ladies' gathering. Then, I privately encouraged them to attend. I wanted so much for her efforts to be met with enthusiasm. To my surprise, the party was a baby shower for me. I’d been set up for something amazing. The ladies' tea was a fabulous event, and years later, we still laugh over my coercing people to come to my own party. I’ve been set up a few time since, and I'm sure you've been set up, a time or two as well. Set-ups usually leave us a bit bewildered. They announce that someone has been putting a plan in place without that plan being openly advertised to everyone involved. While earthly schemes can be quite startling, the outcomes of God-set-ups are even more astonishing. God often makes His moves without offering us full disclosure. Israel’s Promise Land entrance and our faith walk are parallel illustrations of this.
Before Israel entered the Promise Land, God set the record straight. He told them that they didn’t earn the right to the inheritance they were being given. In fact, if they had gotten what they deserved, He would have annihilated them and started a new nation with Moses. It was His grace that opened the door of opportunity for them. Because of His love, not their righteous deeds, He called them out of bondage into freedom. He reminded them that He’d placed His name upon them and set them apart as His own while they were still slaves in Egypt. Sounds familiar; doesn’t it? Getting what we don’t deserve, we can lay claim to the promise of salvation because of God’s great grace. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8). “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,” (John 1:1). “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Secondly, God told Israel that they wouldn’t measure up to their enemy. The giants in the land outsized and outnumbered them. In their own strength, they’d be quickly defeated. But He reassured them that they weren’t going in their own power. He was with them, going before them, fighting with them. This is also true for us. Our weapons of spiritual warfare are mighty…through God (2 Corinthians 2:4). It is He that has gotten us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). On our own, we are no match for the enemy, but through God, we are a mighty army, captained by the Lord of Host.
God gave Israel a peek at His plan. Because their enemy was mighty and because they couldn’t win on their own, there would be no doubt who the real victor was. God set it up that way, making sure it was a weak people fighting warrior giants. The All-powerful God planned on showing these enemies of HIS a thing or two. These squatters on His children’s territory were going to be ousted off their perch. God was going to render them powerless and take their spoils as gifts for those willing to war with Him.
See the similarity to us? We didn’t deserve grace, but we freely received it, and with it, we were made soldiers of God, capable of working with Him to tear down the strongholds of Satan and to inherit the fulness of God’s Word. We can lay claim to things the enemy thinks he has permanent ownership of. Not by our might, but through Jesus. Satan may fancy himself in control of our purpose, our provision, and our posterity, but his authority is no match against the power of God working in us. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” (1 John 4:4).
Deuteronomy 11:12 says God kept His eye on the Promise Land. He remains attentive to His promise. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us,” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The enemy’s influence is limited. The bounty he has experienced is only because God is permitting things to flourish in readiness for His children. The heathen nations thought their fields were producing for them, that their vineyards had lush grapes because of their skill. Instead, it was God preparing the best for those who would inherit His promise. What looks like financial setbacks or sickness or depression, what feels like Satan is winning is God’s strategy for the enemy's demise. We just haven’t been privy to the entirety of the plan. When the provision, the miracle, the joy comes, then we see that there was a greater purpose through which God gets the glory and the adversary is dethroned.
Both now and in the age to come, we who are nothing, by God’s grace, have been set up for something. Something glorious. A celebration God planned for us all along. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," (Matthew 25:34).
Tip/Tidbit: Today, consider the good that God could be creating out of your trouble.
Before Israel entered the Promise Land, God set the record straight. He told them that they didn’t earn the right to the inheritance they were being given. In fact, if they had gotten what they deserved, He would have annihilated them and started a new nation with Moses. It was His grace that opened the door of opportunity for them. Because of His love, not their righteous deeds, He called them out of bondage into freedom. He reminded them that He’d placed His name upon them and set them apart as His own while they were still slaves in Egypt. Sounds familiar; doesn’t it? Getting what we don’t deserve, we can lay claim to the promise of salvation because of God’s great grace. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8). “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,” (John 1:1). “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Secondly, God told Israel that they wouldn’t measure up to their enemy. The giants in the land outsized and outnumbered them. In their own strength, they’d be quickly defeated. But He reassured them that they weren’t going in their own power. He was with them, going before them, fighting with them. This is also true for us. Our weapons of spiritual warfare are mighty…through God (2 Corinthians 2:4). It is He that has gotten us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). On our own, we are no match for the enemy, but through God, we are a mighty army, captained by the Lord of Host.
God gave Israel a peek at His plan. Because their enemy was mighty and because they couldn’t win on their own, there would be no doubt who the real victor was. God set it up that way, making sure it was a weak people fighting warrior giants. The All-powerful God planned on showing these enemies of HIS a thing or two. These squatters on His children’s territory were going to be ousted off their perch. God was going to render them powerless and take their spoils as gifts for those willing to war with Him.
See the similarity to us? We didn’t deserve grace, but we freely received it, and with it, we were made soldiers of God, capable of working with Him to tear down the strongholds of Satan and to inherit the fulness of God’s Word. We can lay claim to things the enemy thinks he has permanent ownership of. Not by our might, but through Jesus. Satan may fancy himself in control of our purpose, our provision, and our posterity, but his authority is no match against the power of God working in us. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” (1 John 4:4).
Deuteronomy 11:12 says God kept His eye on the Promise Land. He remains attentive to His promise. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us,” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The enemy’s influence is limited. The bounty he has experienced is only because God is permitting things to flourish in readiness for His children. The heathen nations thought their fields were producing for them, that their vineyards had lush grapes because of their skill. Instead, it was God preparing the best for those who would inherit His promise. What looks like financial setbacks or sickness or depression, what feels like Satan is winning is God’s strategy for the enemy's demise. We just haven’t been privy to the entirety of the plan. When the provision, the miracle, the joy comes, then we see that there was a greater purpose through which God gets the glory and the adversary is dethroned.
Both now and in the age to come, we who are nothing, by God’s grace, have been set up for something. Something glorious. A celebration God planned for us all along. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," (Matthew 25:34).
Tip/Tidbit: Today, consider the good that God could be creating out of your trouble.
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