“Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” Joshua 21:45

No Problems?

I think we are sometimes under the assumption that if we live a godly life and make the right choices, that things will go well with us and we won’t have problems. It’s certainly very important that we do both of those things! That’s what the Word tells us to do.

But we can easily forget that we live in a fallen world—a world filled with sin, sickness, and evil. Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world. We are impacted by the ungodliness around us in many ways. Sickness, pain, and suffering come our way in this fallen world.

Some months ago someone sent me a teaching on Caleb. I’ve been pondering Caleb’s example for a long time. Caleb was one of the 12 spies sent by Moses to investigate the land of Canaan. Caleb and Joshua saw that the land was bountiful—filled with the good things God had promised them. They gave a positive report. They said we can take it! They had the faith and the obedience to trust God’s promise. But the other ten spies gave a very negative, pessimistic report that filled the people’s hearts with fear and anger towards God.

As we all know, the children of Israel spent the next 40 years (a year for each day the spies had been sent out) wandering in the desert because of their unbelief and anger towards the Lord. They took the word of the spies with the negative report, and they turned their hearts against God.

The thing that struck me was that Caleb and Joshua made the right choice—but they still had to go through the 40 years in the desert! They were the only ones from the first generation that left Egypt who entered the land the Lord had promised to give them—but they had to go through the 40 years of suffering with all the others. However, it also says that God strengthened Caleb. “Here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war” (Joshua 14:11).

There’s no indication that Caleb and Joshua were upset with God for those extra 40 years before they entered into what God had for them. I’m sure it was hard—we can read in the Bible about some of the difficult things that happened in those 40 years. But they remained steadfast and saw God fulfill His promises.

The thing that has spoken to my heart is that we aren’t immune to hard things and suffering—even if we make all the right choices, even if our heart is turned fully towards God. But—He’ll help us and strengthen us as we go through the hard times.

I want to keep my heart steadfast towards the Lord as I continue to walk the path of our unexpected journey. I hope it won’t be 40 years!

God, You have promised to be with us, to help us with whatever we go through, to strengthen us, to give us sufficient grace, to never leave us or forsake us. Whatever we face in our fallen world, You will be with us, and You will fulfill Your promises to us.