Maintaining or Obtaining

As I was reading my daily Bible reading this past week, the Spirit quickened this portion from Deuteronomy 11:10-12:

“For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”

God is trying to help His people who have come out of four hundred years of slavery, to understand how much greater this land of promise is than the land of Egypt. All they have known is subsistence farming, where they could only plant as much as they could physically water and maintain. God is taking them into a land where they will never have to water. In this land they can plant as much land as they can conquer. This is a land of divine provision from the beginning to the end of the year.

We, too like the children of Israel, are often enslaved by our limitations. We work hard by our own might to develop and maintain our vegetable garden. The land which God has for us to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which we have come. God’s kingdom does not operate by the principles of this world. God’s challenge to Israel in Deuteronomy 11:13-14 is the same challenge he gives us today. “If you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain.”

As we celebrate Easter, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ to deliver us from the bondages and limitations of our past and to bring us into the fullness of what God has for us. God wants to be our provider, no matter what the need may be. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Let us not be so preoccupied trying to water our vegetable garden that we fail to pursue, love, and serve the Lord our God with all our heart and soul. This Easter season let us purpose once again to allow Jesus to be the center of our life, family, job, and ministry. May we not be satisfied just to maintain what we have but to obtain all that He has provided for us so richly and freely to enjoy.

This Easter season may you celebrate Jesus as you never have before. Lay aside your business and your problems and celebrate Jesus for who He is. Renew your love relationship with Him who died for your sin and rose again in power for your freedom. Dust off those promises He has given you and believe Him again to do the supernatural in your life.

Andy Clark