Obedience and the Wilderness

         So earlier this year, the Lord really used a blog post of mine from last year to challenge and encourage me, as well as to continue building on a particular theme/Biblical analogy that He has been using in my life on and off for the past year. There was one part in particular on this post that He really challenged me with as I was struggling with trusting in Him and His guidance and provision in a certain area of my life and it said " I want to make sure that I am one of the Joshua's and Caleb's of the world, not one of the other 10 who caused the Israelites to doubt, disobey, and end up wandering the desert for 40 years." (don't you just love it when the Lord uses your own words back at you to speak to you about something?? haha. It is definitely humbling and probably more effective than anyone else's words.) This quote made even more of an impact on me because of a book that I am reading right now called One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer. In it she talks about how out of approximately two million Israelites, only two - Joshua and Caleb - made it to the Promised Land. She uses the story of the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land to illustrate the seasons/ways that God moves in our lives as well.
     So I know in church, when we are usually talking about the Israelites, we talk about how they had to wander the wilderness for 40 years and how they never got to make it to the Promised Land because of their disbelief. We also talk about how we want to be a 'Joshua' or 'Caleb' and be willing to believe in God's promises to come true. Yet, the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that I didn't think that I had ever heard anyone talking about how even though Joshua and Caleb did the right thing by believing in God, they were still stuck wandering in the wilderness for 40 years with the rest of the people who didn't believe!!! Let that sink in....40 years of wilderness wandering with everyone else even though they made the right choice to be obedient and to trust in God. So this got me to thinking that just because we are doing our best to be obedient to and listen to God doesn't mean that we won't spend time in the wilderness...The wilderness is not just a punishment for those who were disobedient and unbelieving, but it's also about preparation and strengthening of character for those who are obedient and believing. It is just like Beth Moore was saying in the video last week at Bible study, God's got an amazing calling and inheritance for us, but it is something that we are going to have to fight for!! After all, it will not only be worth more to us because we had to fight for it, but God knows that it is the spiritual muscle that is gained through that fight that will enable us to be successful in the fight to keep our inheritance.