Break Out Of The Box!

‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18

When others saw giants in the Promised Land and wanted to return to Egypt, Caleb said, ‘The LORD…will bring us safely into that land and give it to us.’ At that point two things happened. ‘The whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle’ (v.10). When the people around Caleb said no, God said yes – and all you need is His approval! When you have that, you can disregard the nay-sayers and move forward. If you wait for everyone to approve, agree with you, and applaud you, you’ll get nowhere. There was a time when people thought the earth was flat, and that man would never walk on the moon. In 1899 the U.S. Patent Office almost closed because the commissioner, Charles H. Duell, said, ‘Everything that can be invented has been invented.’ In retrospect this statement is ridiculous, but some of us have this same mindset. We stop learning because we think we’re too old. We’re afraid to change careers in case we jeopardize our pension. We don’t pursue our dreams in case we fail or get ridiculed. We’re so used to self-imposed limitations and telling ourselves, ‘I can’t do that,’ we think we can’t do anything. In essence, we’ve built a box, crawled inside, and now we’re looking for something or someone to blame for our lack of faith. God didn’t box you in – you did – and you need to take the initiative for breaking out. Today decide to do it – and God will bless your endeavors.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, it is so freeing to be “out of the box” – and scary sometimes. Thank You for enabling me to “get out”. In Jesus’ Name, Amen