You know our church has been doing this 40-day lab thing as a daily assignment. The church sends us a text every day for 40 days to suggest an “assignment” to do that day, as an individual. This “mission, should we choose to accept it” ;-), is done with the intent to draw us closer to God. What is it about 40 days? We’re doing the “40-day Lab” even as we study Moses and the children of Israel, and their ultimate choice not to enter the Promised Land. The twelve representatives from the tribes of Israel who went into Canaan, spied out the land for a full 40 days before returning to tell Israel they didn’t believe Israel could take the land. Oh, two representatives said surely they could, with the help of God. But the masses chose the fear and unbelief of the other 8 men, which led to 40 years aimlessly wandering in the wilderness. That generation was judged by God to have to die there in the wilderness, and leave the next generation to have their chance to enter the Promised Land. By the way, did you know that, as old as they were by the end of the 40 years wandering, those faithful, believing “spies” (Caleb and Joshua) did, indeed enter the Promised Land and help take it with the younger generation? Joshua, in fact, acted as Moses’ successor as leader of the Israelites!
But back to that ubiquitous “40 day” period of time that is found so often in the Bible. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, and then 40 days back on earth after His death and resurrection before He finally arose into Heaven. Noah waited it out 40 days and nights while it rained and flooded the Earth. Moses was up on the mountain top receiving the law and commandments from God for 40 days. There’s definitely something special about the number 40 all through the Bible! I’ve heard that it is the number of completion.
I also used to hear that it took about 21 days to a month to break a bad habit or form a new one. That seems to be a myth, started by a 1960 study by a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz, who found that it usually took 21 days for a patient to get used to their new face, or for an amputee to adjust to losing a limb. Then in 2009, a psychological health researcher named Dr. Philippa Lally did a study at UCL (I had to do a little research myself to learn that stood for University College London), that showed that, depending on the difficulty of the change of habit, it could take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a new habit to become automatic, with an average of 66 days. All this to say, that maybe doing a little extra “homework” for these 40 days will remind our congregation members (myself included) to include God more regularly in their weekly, and especially DAILY, schedule – to check in with Him more regularly throughout their days!
Still, even after participating fairly regularly in the “40-day lab” I’m still stuck with the feeling of needing to be MORE filled up daily. I guess you could say I need to partake of my daily bread from God, or else I will find myself turning to lesser gods, just as the Israelites did, even though God fully provided for their every need. What lesser gods you may ask? Well, I’ll wait till later to tell you some of mine. I think we all have our “lesser gods,” though – our idols. Things that we turn to for fulfillment INSTEAD of our God. Usually they are not such things as carved images or golden calves. But if we turn to something for our spiritual or emotional nourishment besides the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life – the person of Jesus Christ, God Himself…if we turn, not in addition to, but INSTEAD of God, we have then made these lesser things a type of idol – a “god” to us (which is a sin).
Back to the Israelites and their faults and lacks. I think I’d rather look at their sins for a while instead of my own! God had already proved His miracle-working ability to free them from the Egyptians, even providing for their future by having the previous slave-owner Egyptians give them their gold and jewelry for the journey as the Israelites departed! The Israelites saw personally how, after Pharaoh regretted having let them all go free, and came after them with his chariots and soldiers –God used Moses and his staff held up in the air, to then part the Red Sea for the Israelites. But God rescinded His orders, and covered over the Egyptians with the water when they tried to follow the Israelites on the dry seabed.
Still – like me – the Israelites soon forgot God’s care for them. They evidently were not feeling filled up in the desert- even WITH their daily manna and miraculously mined water provision (from a rock!). They felt the need for something more. With me, it is usually the intangible things I crave: feelings…of love…significance. And I wonder if that’s not what the early Israelites might have craved as well. And maybe it was available to them, if they’d only looked at what all God was doing for them, and had listened to what Moses had told them of God’s great love for them and His watchful eye over them. After all, God showed Himself present to them by a pillar of fire by night and a cooling cloud by day. I’m sure being homeless, so to speak, and always on the move the wandering Israelites longed for a sense of place – of home – of security. And had they followed courageously and with faith God’s call into the Promised Land, they would have HAD a permanent home. It’s just that….well…like us, they wanted – maybe expected – it to be a lot easier! After all, they were informed there were giants in the land – an enemy they’d have to fight and conquer before dwelling safely in a land of their own. They would have had to battle the very giants they had heard the 12 spies report about. And they felt “like grasshoppers” compared to them!
Little did they (or do we) realize how BIG God would continue to prove on their (and our) behalves. And that’s where it takes faith…a firm and continuing relationship with God Almighty based on whom He has already proven Himself to be to them – and to us – in the past.
Just last night I found out that a very dear friend of mine from Arlington, a neighbor where I used to live, took her own life. After a severe and long battle with loneliness, unforgiveness and depression, she gave in to her giants of alcohol and drugs. That battle to be free of her addictions again at this point in her life seemed too much of a giant to her, and forgiving those who had wronged her during the middle years of her life seemed too hard for her. Returning to church also seemed too much, and she felt like only a grasshopper, so she ended it all. My friend was a Christian – she HAD Christ…but she had turned away from Him into bitterness and unforgiveness, and it eventually cost her her very life. I know God has forgiven her and wrapped His loving arms around her, and she is now free from the bondage of unforgiveness, as well. But it was never the life God had planned for his daughter on earth. His plans for every one of His children are for good, and not for evil. But we must follow Christ and HIS way, and not return to ourselves. In the end, I believe my friend was full of faith in her Father for a better life – for herself, for her own forgiveness and redemption in Heaven. But now it is her two sons, her ex-husband and her friends and family who will have to pay – to suffer.
God would always be faithful to the Israelites – and to us – if they, and we, would just step out in trust of Him – over and over again. It was never “blind faith” that God required. He had given them plenty of proof – of evidence – of who He was. But God is not predictable and “manageable” – like the gods the Israelites had made for themselves. When they wondered if Moses was ever going to return to lead them again (it was, after all, 40 long days and nights he was up there), they made the choice to quit and turn back to what they thought they could predict – dead as it was! A dead so-called “god” they themselves had given Aaron their gold rings and such to fashion! Their “golden calf.” They surely could have waited a little longer, even though they were not told in advance how long Moses would be gone. But the Bible says the presence of God was on top of Mt. Horeb (another name for Mt. Sinai, the holy mountain of God) and it appeared to them as a fire. Could they not still see the fire? Were they not aware God’s presence was still there…”right in plain view?” And yet, they gave up waiting, and asked Moses’ brother, Aaron, to fashion a golden calf for them! And they got up the next day to act improperly toward it and most likely toward each other – worshiping and glorifying it with sacrifices, and then proceeding to party wildly, as was the custom of people NOT affiliated with the one, true God.
Sometimes I am tempted like they were to put myself, my ways, my wants at the center of my life – substituting my plans and actions for God’s plan for me. God WILL fill us up daily if we look to Him. Jesus IS our daily manna. And we long to experience Him. But we have to trust Him. We have to take time to get to know Him, and remember what He’s done, and Who He is. And I think we pretty much have to obey what He asks of us to live happily and in harmony with Him on this earth. And, like Jesus explained, God will come to us and make His home with us and even “sup” with us! (John 14:23 and Rev. 3:20). Surely THAT would satisfy our emotional needs, and also our need for significance.
But there is a condition with that promise. Of course God is always present with us as believers. But there is more. We need to access Him, His love, His Spirit. Or we will feel dry, left out, wandering in a wilderness. In John 14:23, one of the disciples questioned Jesus about how He would make Himself manifest to them, and not the world after He “went away.” They may or may not have realized that meant He was going to die. Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.” Elsewhere, when someone asked Jesus what IS the will of God, He replied that the will of God is to believe on Him whom He had sent (Jesus Himself). And to believe on Him means not just the one-time belief where we put our faith in Jesus. That is not all that God wants of us for the rest of our lives, after we have believed. For salvation, that is it, as I understand the Word – trust Jesus for your salvation instead of trusting in ourselves and our own so-called “good works.” Really KNOW our own need, our sinfulness and turn to God for salvation and a right standing with God. But, for the rest of our lives as believers, God gives us many other instructions, and to be truly content and not ill-at-ease with God, feeling apart from Him, God wants us to continue in His Word…all of His words. His instructions come to us through His many words to us in the Bible and can come directly to our spirits, as well. And they are always for our good, and the good of others. However, I think it is not so much that we don’t know what God wants of us daily, as it is that we are reluctant to do it at times! And so….I think we, like the Israelites, get restless, looking to other sources for the happiness and contentment that SHOULD be ours at all times by staying in His will. I know I often try to substitute food, or shopping, or entertainment, or even service to others, for the true feeling of God’s peace and approval, when I am feeling “not quite full.” And yet, Jesus has promised to fill us and satisfy us with Himself. He is always with us. We just aren’t always “with Him”!
Three of our church’s 40-day lab assignments have had to do with setting timers every hour to check in with God – ask Him for help, thank Him, and see how we’ve been spending our time…if we’ve been acknowledging Him. One assignment said to spend one minute contemplating God when that timer went off every hour. Well I guess that should aid in our connecting with Christ. It helped me be more conscious of His presence with me throughout the day (and consequently, I became aware of how much I daily neglect to acknowledge that Presence with me and be nourished by Him – by His closeness throughout my day). There is an old hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” You may remember singing it. But do we live like that? Do we live like we need God every hour? I don’t think so. I think we would rather look to what is the next venture or experience that will build us up, put us at the center and make us our own gods. For we think somehow that will make us feel better. Well, sorry, friends, that’s just not God’s plan! He will fill us up, but we will have to look to Him and obey what He says in order to enter that “promised land” of contentment. Do we act like we need Him every hour? Do we live reliant on, open to, and obedient to Him EVERY hour? Do we, really? Could we? I think if God has promised us fulfillment in Him, we certainly have the ability to fulfill the necessary steps to receive it! May we all find that happy rest in this lifetime, and not just wait for it to come in the next. Amen.
1truevoice (and it's not mine!) 