Along the route to “SUCCESS” you will find yourself standing on the banks of some natural occurring boundaries, or barriers of water, winding their way through the landscape… sometimes helping you… sometimes stopping you cold.
Teddy Roosevelt found one in the Amazon, a River of Doubt.
Samuel Clemens derived his famous pen name from a phrase used by riverboat captains plying their trade up and down The Mighty Mississip.
Julius Caesar himself made famous the phrase “We are crossing the Rubicon!” Which history has claimed as it’s own, and is still used today in the military… when you cross “the point of no return!” As he did when he declared himself an enemy of the state of Rome… just by crossing that said same river, which now has been filled in by the sands of time.
Me… well… I’ve gotten my feet wet more than once now.
If you pay attention, you can see them coming just by the change in the topography… or if it’s the spring of the year they can be so full they can be almost indistinguishable, hidden, among the reeds, with no clear channel at all… instead of looking like a kings banner, a flowing, regal blue, riparian ribbon. Which bends, and bows, with the gentle winds of the lay of the land.
Spiritually the Lord has brought me to, and over all such bodies of water thus far.
And after feeling like I was wandering a little, the same as the Israelite’s, the Lord has brought me up against the Jordan… again.
“I looked over Jordan… and what did I see?”
Actually he had me turn around and see where I had been.
I had crossed over… and didn’t know how.
A preacher, a Mr. Charles H. Spurgeon, aptly called it, “the Jordan of Indecision.” In a sermon he preached on May 12th, 1889.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2086.cfm
This river of “INDECISION” can only be conquered by a step of faith.
I was studying Exodus 23:30
“Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”
Mr. Spurgeon again had the words that were on the tip of my tongue… “There is your land, but Jordan… rolls between.”
I can see it Lord, but have I increased enough to take it?
Am I big enough?
And there I was. Standing on the other side. Looking over my shoulder, at where I’d been, then taking a step forward, away from the muddy bank.
Kinda wondering , “What the heck just happened?”
He’s not asking me to put to death anything but my own sinful nature, there’s no Caananites, Hivites, or Hittites… that I can see.
It’s wide open.
He has shown me the promised land is full of nothing but time and space.
Time to do what He wants me to do… with all the room in the world to do it in.
I’ve been using Proverbs 3:5, 6 to put to death sinful thought patterns, and in those two verses the word “ACKNOWLEDGE” is used.
“… acknowledge Him in all your ways…”
In the physical world I’ve been applying that word to my attempts at being successful.
It has helped me be more confident performing my responsibilities at my day job.
It has helped me in my weekly writing… and helping me to “SET” my personal goal of being an “AUTHOR” first… in my new endeavors.
And… it allowed me to see Gods hand when I recently fixed a young ladies car for $87.00 bucks… and watching my wife with pride when we delivered it back to the young lady, and her grandma…
with my wife smiling a joyful smile, handing over the keys, while she wished everyone a “Merry Christmas, you’re welcome, Merry Christmas!”
Then through Mr. Spurgeon’s sermon, finding a great exhortation… as I look out across this new landscape, not worrying about time or space.
“Let us not imagine that we are doomed to small usefulness… as you find all in God when you are poor, you shall find God in all when you are rich!”
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