Why? Because I had promised my kids I would, and it was on me to deliver.
 
It doesn’t matter if my children remembered I made them pancakes that morning (they don’t); it doesmatter that they know me as a promise keeper.
 
In this week's reading, Moses wants the Israelites to know the same thing— He reminds the Israelites of God’s faithfulness by taking them back in history. Their physical journey was something God had put into motion a long time prior. Joseph was sold into slavery and, because of famine, moved his family to Egypt where the descendents of Israel grew to be so numerous Pharaoh was threatened and, well, you know the rest of the story. 
 
Here, the nation of Israel is on the cusp of change, again. They are getting ready to enter into their Promised Land. Moses uses the opportunity to address their heart condition. He encourages them to be humble and keep God’s ways. Then, my favorite part, reminds them that they did not earn access into this promised land— it is a gift from God. And if God started it, and God promised it, God would finish it. 
 
Have you, like me, ever felt like you are, a bit impatiently, waiting in the wilderness? Knowing that God made you a promise, but not seeing any progress?
 
God freed the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt forty years before they actually succeeded in entering the land flowing with milk and honey. Interestingly, they had reached the doorstep of the Promised Land less than two years after leaving Egypt, but didn’t trust God to give them the victory. God never intended for Israel to wander forty years. It was their own choices that had prolonged the journey. But, through it all, God cared for them and walked each step with them, bringing their descendants back again.
 
You see, friend, God never wastes our time. He is walking each step of this journey with us and, just like with the Israelites, continually teaching so we can be ready to step into what He has promised.
 
Are you in a season of waiting and repetition? Consider what God is teaching you. Is there a faith step forward that you can take?
 
As moms, we’re not always perfect promise keepers, but God is. What God puts into motion, He will bring to completion. Like Israel, our journey is less about what is happening around us and more about what is happening within us. In the dust of the desert God is preparing our hearts to trust Him. He is patiently waiting for us to trust and obey. As with the Israelites, obedience doesn’t earn us the Promised Land, but it is necessary to claim it.
 
Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past helps us remember that He is present both now and in the future. He is a Promise Keeper.

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Sometimes we have those moments, because of a scripture or a song. Suddenly, we get what God has been trying to tell us. The big life lesson hits and (cue the mental head-slap) we get it.
 
That was my moment, one of the first ones. Enough was enough. My feelings had been in the driver’s seat of my life for too long, and every storm seemed to wipe me out. God was calling me to marry my feelings to my beliefs so that I could live the abundant life He created for me.
 
The story in Deuteronomy 7 describes Israel in the wilderness, preparing to head into new territory. It was a new season. They had reached their destiny. God gave them instructions for living in this new land. He was helping them to stay safe, and to walk out His divine plan. He knew what challenges they would face and addressed them before they ever stepped foot on the land. 
 
God knows our propensity to be driven by our feelings. He knew Israel would face things that would draw their hearts away from Him. He knows the same is true for you and me. One of the most understated dynamics of our walk is the impact our feelings have on our faith. Feelings are real, but they are not necessarily reality.The truth is our feelings don’t always line up with our beliefs. We look around us and begin to compare ourselves, wanting the things others have.
 
God always has a simple process, though it may be hard and make us uncomfortable (especially when it comes to our emotions). But it’s always simple. He speaks to our beliefs about our identity to help us manage our emotions. He reminds us who we are, so that our feelings can get behind our beliefs. This is how he spoke to the Israelites, before they entered the Promised Land. This is how we, too, live in our Promised Land.
 
There are four beliefs that stand out to me in Deuteronomy 7:6-7:

1. We are holy. Not perfect, but set apart. We are not called to be like the world. We are set apart to the Lord.
2. We are chosen. The Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, chose you.
3. We are His. He ransomed us, and we belong to Him.
4. He did all this, not because we are amazing, but because He loves us.

 
These four beliefs can remind us about our identity, when our emotions are running rampant.

What are your feelings driving at today? Ask God what feelings you have that aren’t married to your beliefs. Let Him highlight the one He’s working on. Ask Him what you’re believing that this feeling needs to get behind. Let God remind you that you are holy, chosen, His, and loved. 

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But it wasn’t just the food they despised— the Israelites complained about the leadership and land God provided for them also. Their desires caused them to look back fondly on Egypt as their source of provision, until they craved Egypt itself...forgetting they were slavesthere. 
 
The craving for “other food” wasn’t just the whining of spoiled children. It was the all out rejection of the Provider Himself, and led straight to death. In their flesh they craved flesh. And God answered their gluttonous complaints by providing so much quail they could swim in it. But with their indulgence came a deadly plague, followed by a burial ground they named “graves of craving.”
 
It isn’t wrong to crave good things, we were created to do that. The trouble is that apart from God, our taste buds completely misidentify what good even tastes like. The manna God blessed Israel with was intended to nourish and create an appetite for the One who gave it. Instead, their cravings were skewed, and they mistakenly identified slavery in Egypt as something to be desired, and loathed dependence on God’s faithful daily provision.
 
You and I? We’re not that different. I hate that the longings of my flesh have the potential to cloud my judgement until a life of oppression sounds delicious.
 
Like Eve reaching for the wrong tree, Israel begging for the wrong menu, and the crowd shouting “Barabbas,” in my flesh I’m prone to reject divine goodness. When our perspective has gotten that far off, and our taste that bad, only God himself can realign our appetites and remind us that He alone is good.
 
Thank God He has given us Himself, through Jesus, and offered freedom from our own “graves of cravings.” Through His power, we can choose to set our minds on what the Spirit desires, gaining victory over the rotten cravings of our flesh.
 
Every longing presents an opportunity to draw near to God and welcome His transforming work. We can’t desire God apart from the help of the Holy Spirit, but we can ask Him (daily and even hourly!) to give us an appetite for Him and for His Word.
 
He is the Bread of Life and the Living Water, and He promises not only to satisfy, but to accomplish in us the transformation necessary to savor Him above all else. 

If we’ll allow Him, God is always faithful to remind us. In my struggle, He brought to mind a people who had suffered far greater on their journey through the wilderness. In Exodus 32 and 33, the Israelites were in the waiting of a promise that God had given them – to be delivered into a land flowing with milk and honey. They had been promised their rainbow after the storm of generations of slavery, just as I had been promised a life-bearing womb.
 
However, in their long wait for Moses to come down from the mountain, they grew impatient, turning away from THE God and turning to false ‘gods’ to worship. They had momentarily lost their faith and spiritual sight, which, in turn, caused a domino effect of confusion, turmoil, and hardship.
 
Have you ever been so caught up in waiting for a promise that you lose sight of the Promise Maker? Have you ever become so impatient that you turn to physical means to try and make it happen?
 
When our spiritual eyes become muddied and our patience tested, it becomes easier to look to the visible false gods around us, and rely on the false hope they bring. It’s easy to forget Who it is that made us these promises in the first place.
 
Hebrews 10:23 tells us to hold “unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). What is forever humbling about our Promise Maker in Heaven, is that He is also very much the Promise Keeper. Not even once has He spoken a word that He has not also brought into fruition.
 
In our waiting, hoping, and bold expectation, God answered. After what seemed like an eternity of ups and downs, our promise was abundantly filled. In June of 2020 we welcomed our sweet baby boy, Matthew. That, my friends, is nothing but another miraculous testament to the faithfulness of the Promise Keeper we serve.

Clean house?
Time for husband?
Time for friends?
Time for other important things?
 
I had a spiritual chart too. Enough Bible study, prayer, serving? I was never quite sure. Every night I bemoaned the missing stickers on my chart, and I was sure God was disappointed too. 
 
The problem was, I was trying to work my way to God instead of living from what Jesus had already done. Instead of living my life IN Him, I was trying to live my life to get TO Him. Those two ways of living are worlds apart.
 
As we read in Exodus, the Israelites frequently found themselves in the same predicament. They witnessed God part the Red Sea, then lead them as a shading cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. He provided manna for them to eat, and even made water pour out of a rock. God had been tender towards them, telling Moses to remind them in Exodus 19:4 that He had carried them on eagle’s wings and brought them to Himself.  His purpose in delivering them was for them to be with Him. This always was and still is God’s heart. He has always wanted to do life with us, since the Garden of Eden.
 
In Exodus 20:1-17 God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. These laws were an invitation to live a different kind of life— a life of wholeness and holiness. A life in good relationship with both people and God… and isn’t that what we all truly want?
 
Two times the Israelites declare, with all the gusto of good intention, “We will do everything the Lord has said!” However, the people found themselves in a place of wanting to do the right thing, but continually failing. They constantly teetered between faithfulness and faithlessness, leading to more sin and frustration.
 
Their good intentions weren’t enough. (They never are!) The Israelites desperately needed something else— a Savior.
 
Jesus came to fulfill what we could not. Because of Jesus, we no longer just do the right things outwardly, but become the right kind of people. Perfection is no longer required because He is perfect.
 
In Hebrews 4:14-16, we are told Jesus is our great high priest who sympathizes with our every weakness. We are invited to come to His throne of grace where we will find kindness, forgiveness, hope and mercy. We don’t have to wait for the right time, the right place, the right person or the right ceremony. He is near us, beside us and walking with us no matter what our day looks like.
 
Living from what He’s already accomplished, we can come to Him readily, even on no-sticker days, knowing He loves us and always wants us close to Him.