Promised Land

By Eric Tworek

Eric Tworek is a worship leader at Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Eric encourages us to connect with God through praise and worship.

Ah, the Promised Land. It’s right there, just across the Jordan River. All we have to do is step in. The waters will part, we’ll walk across, and we will have arrived! Finally, after all that wandering in the wilderness, we will be in the place God has called us to – the land flowing with milk and honey. The center of His will for us!

But what did the Hebrews leave behind when they entered the Promised Land? They had to find their own food – no more manna. Their clothes and shoes started wearing out, and there was no more cloud of smoke by day and pillar of fire by night. All of a sudden it wasn’t so easy to follow God’s leading. Plus, there were enemies in the Promised Land.

How often have we longed for our own promised land, that place we know God has for us? We couldn’t wait to move out of our parent’s house or graduate from college, only to find hard work and debt staring us in the face. We couldn’t wait to get out of that cramped apartment and into a new house, only to find yard work, broken furnaces and washing machines, or leaking roofs, all of which cost lots of money to fix. Or how about that new car?...with the payments, extra insurance, expensive tires to replace and now it needs brakes!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying God didn’t have those Promised Land things waiting for us. I’m just saying that sometimes the Promised Land can be a tougher place to live than the wilderness. In the wilderness we tend to stay pretty focused on God, and rightly so. We’re a little scared, a little confused, pretty needy, but very hopeful. So we depend on God and we can see His divine provision in so many ways. But when we “arrive” there is a tendency to lose that focus. We have a natural, worldly tendency to focus on the things God has provided. How sad when God’s provision becomes more important than God Himself. I hate to say it, but that’s idol worship!

So how do we keep our Godly focus? Well, I have one idea, and I’d love to hear yours. My idea is that in order to keep God large in our life we need to praise and worship Him. When we praise God and magnify Him (Ps. 34:3). He comes more into focus and we begin to see how big He really is. God is awesome and amazing and so worthy of our praise. But when we don’t do it often enough, God can grow smaller and smaller in our eyes, while the cares of this world get larger.

Psalm 34:3 (New International Version)

Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

So download some great worship music (check out www.ccli.com Top 25 or google “free worship music downloads”). Pop in that CD or play those mp3s while you’re getting ready for work in the morning. Skip the news and sing about the Good News. Make it part of your daily routine and watch God grow right before your eyes.

I’d love to hear how you keep God large in your life or how you plan to start doing that. What songs encourage you most? Let’s help each other stay focused on Him and not the things He has given us. We serve a great big, wonderful God. He deserves our attention and praise. Ps. 34:8-9