Trading Yesterday For Tomorrow
HEBREWS 4:1
Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
Do you remember Jed Clampett and The Beverly Hillbillies? What made that show so funny was that Jed and his crew had been delivered from their old life in the middle of nowhere, but they were still living as hillbillies in their new life in Beverly Hills. Their location had changed, but their mindset hadn’t. The same was true for the Israelites who escaped Egypt after 430 years of oppression. The Israelites had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them. Having traveled to the Promised Land and sent spies to examine it, they stood on the precipice of a glorious tomorrow. But instead of trusting God to give them their inheritance, they chose to focus on the challenges they would face. Rather than celebrating, they grumbled and complained.
They even wanted to go back to their past instead of continuing into their future. When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, He did not only deliver them from their past, He also delivered them to their future—Canaan. Yet because they chose to be so focused on yesterday, they missed their tomorrow. As a result, they were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years so God could disconnect them from their past. Many of us cannot get excited about tomorrow because we are still clinging to our past. We cannot step into our future because we cannot even get through today. The Israelites were tethered to their past because they failed to do what Hebrews chapter 4 tells us is essential: to combine God’s word with faith. We read, “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” (Hebrews 4:1-2). To have faith is to act on God’s Word. Having faith is acting like something is so even when it is not so in order for it to be so simply because God said so. Faith is always an action. That is why we are told to “walk by faith” rather than being told to “talk by faith.” Until we actively apply God’s Word to our lives, it remains a spiritual theory. It will not become a concrete experience. Without an action, it will die in the wilderness. God is not as interested in your “amen” as He is in your action as you live out your destiny.
Lord, make me a person of active faith—acting in a way that reveals my confidence in You and Your Word.
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