InHisStrength's Journal

Do you ever feel like you are in a wilderness?  Does it just seem like everything is going wrong?  I recently read a book to help me to see that I have been in a wilderness and and my thinking was based on past events and not on truth.  I thought my thinking was truth but it just kept me in a pit in the wilderness.  In the Bible the Isrealites were in captivity.  They were made as slaves and beaten and had many difficult things happen to them.  Moses went to Pharoah and told him that God said to let his people go but Pharoah refused.  Because he refused to obey God, plagues and death came upon the people who were not Isrealites.  He finally let the Isrealites go but later decided he would go after them.  God freed the Isrealites and now they were runnung for their lives.  They come upon the Red Sea and God made a way for the sea to open so they could run through on dry ground to the other side to escape Pharoah.  When the Isrealites were safe on the other side, the sea came crashing down on Pharoah and his people.  God freed his followers.  God promised to bring his people to a place flowing with milk an honey(a place that had what they needed in abundance) called the Promise Land in Canaan.  This was a 11 day trip but took 40 years to get there.  Why?  They were not ready for the battle that they would face to get to the Promise land.  For 40 years they were in the wilderness.  Why?  Because even after all that God had done for them they decided to complain and do their own thing.  Even though God gave them manna daily they complained that they didn't have meat.  They began to worship idols(a golden calf).  Moses did everything for them because they didn't take responsibility for themselves.  They always blamed others for their actions.  They bickered and complained about their leaders.  Instead of being thankful to God for bringing them out of captivity, they decided to complain about what they don't have(even though God was meeting their every need) and started saying that maybe they should go back to Egypt in captivity because at least they had the food we wanted.  (Sometimes we get stuck in captivity because we are afraid of what is on the other side.  After 40 years, Joshua led the Isrealites into the promise land and won every battle because the Lord was on their side.  You might ask what this has to do with me?  Well we all have wilderness mentalities that keep us from experiencing healing and all that God has for us.  I want to share these over the next few journals.

Wilderness Mentality #1

"My future is determined by my past and present." 

The Isrealites had no positive vision for their lives - no dreams.  They knew where they came from, but they did not know where they were going.  Everything was based on their surroundings and not in faith in God.  You may have had a miserable past and you circumstances now may not be so great, but it does not determine your future.  Get a new mindset!  "With God all things are possible."  Luke 18:27  We serve a God who creates everything we see out of nothingness.  Hebrews 11:3  Give Him your nothingness and watch Him go to work.  All He needs is your faith in Him. 

Until next time May the Lord bless you and keep you

"Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyers