Happy Monday

Editor's Note: 
     Keeping it simple today... Been fighting Bronchitis for almost a week... All I can do to inhale enough air just to manage a good cough... 
Happy Reading,
Richard 
Are We There Yet?

These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. - 1 Peter 1:7

A few years ago, a bus company coined the slogan, "Getting there is half the fun." Their ad campaign was a failure. Why? Because hardly anyone believes that getting there is half the fun--especially on a bus. We're destination-oriented people.
And so were the children of Israel--there were two ways to get out of the land of Egypt into the land of Canaan. One way took only a few days. The other took much longer and led them into the howling wilderness. So they took the shortcut--right? Wrong. God led them through the way of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea. Why did He do this?

Deuteronomy 8:2 says, "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands."
God was taking a group of former slaves and transforming them into His free people, ready to possess the Promised Land. Had God led them through the shortcut, they would have come into contact almost immediately with the Philistines, a warlike people--fierce and tough. They weren't ready for that. Their hands were accustomed to the brick mason's trowel, not the warrior's sword.

In Deuteronomy it says God led His people "about." Back and forth, here and there. But what appeared to be a "wandering" experience was really not that at all. God knew exactly what He was doing. It wasn't the nearest way, but it was the right way.

Prayer
Lord, I may feel unsettled and out of control right now, but I know You are with me, and You will make a way through this desert. Amen.
God doesn't allow us to take shortcuts; He exposes us to experiences that will strengthen our walk with Him.