God Promises to Go Before You
Do you see God ahead of you? Do you really believe that He’s there?
Verse of the Day
‘Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.’
Today’s Devotional
How good are you at delegating? Some people are much better at delegating than others. There is a time and a place to share our work load with others, and there is a time and place for us to handle things on our own.
Imagine that you were talking to a world renowned doctor and He tells you that some tests needed to be run. How would it make you feel if he told you that he was going to do the swabs himself instead of letting the nurse handle it? And then he tells you that he is going to carry those swabs to the lab and run the tests himself. And then he is going to call you with the results. That would make me feel like my health and any concerns were important to this doctor, so much so that he is going to personally step in and do jobs that other people could handle.
I love it when I notice words in the Bible that I had not noticed before. For today, the word that jumps out to me is “personally”. God Himself is telling us that He will go ahead of us. In the context of this verse, God told Moses that He was going ahead of Joshua and the people of Israel to conquer the promised land. He isn’t sending the angel Gabriel or Michael, He is going Himself. God is choosing not to delegate our well being, and instead He is handling it Himself. Do you see the love encompassed in that statement? Do you see the inherent value we must have to Him?
I have no plans in the next few days to invade any foreign territory, but I believe God’s promise to Joshua is true for you and I as well. I believe that God is promising us that He is our personal advance team. I believe that He is present in my next moments, my next days, and every breath I will take between now and when I die. God is promising us that He will always be present. He is promising us that he will never, ever let us down.
That message can be hard to accept when there are things in that life that are very discouraging. I have lived through some seasons that I do not care to revisit. But as I look back, I can see the purpose for some of those difficulties. I cannot see the purpose for all of them. For the difficulties that I still do not understand, I must choose to trust God’s will and know that He has reasons that I cannot see. I must choose to believe God’s promises to be true.
The hard part of this is to choose courage and prayer over fear. To choose patience and trust over discouragement. To choose to take God at His word even when the circumstances don’t make sense. God tells us not to fear or be discouraged because He knows that will be our default. He is telling us that we have a choice. We can choose to take Him at His word or not. And if we choose not to believe these promises of God, fear and discouragement will be the natural result.
That leaves me with an uncomfortable question. There are places in my life today where there is fear and discouragement. So…why am I not believing God’s promise to me? And how can I take God at His word and trust in His presence, protection, provision, and plan?
The promises of God are true and everlasting. The hard part seems to be believing them to be true for myself in all circumstances.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How does it make you feel that God personally goes before you?
Where is there fear in your life?
Where is there discouragement?
How can you apply today’s promise to those areas of your life?
Where do you need God’s presence, protection, provision, and plan?
How can you choose to trust in God’s promises for you?