The blessings of God can be dangerous to us. They can lead toward pride and complacency. That is when the blessings of God backfire.
There are lessons to be learned from the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. If you want to make it to the Promise Land you have to break camp. That is what God tells the Israelites in Numbers 9:15-23. Sometimes they would only camp overnight and the cloud would move. Other times they stayed put for weeks or months. But whenever the cloud moved the Israelites broke camp. By my count, the Israelites had to break camp forty-one times to reach the Promise Land. The travel itinerary is recorded in Numbers 33.
A few observations.
Most of us want to get to the Promise Land in one step or two stops! It doesn't work that way! It took forty-one moves for the Israelites to get there.
It is easy to break camp when you're at Rephidim—because there was no water. You're ready to go the instant God calls you to move!
It is much more difficult to break camp when you're in Elim--there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. I'm convinced that Elim is the most dangerous place in our journey. It is so easy to mistake it for the Promise Land. We can become comfortable there. We don't want to leave! So we settle down when God wants us to break camp.
The same is true at Mount Horeb. The Israelites have a God encounter. They hear His voice. They receive the ten commandments. And part of you wants to stay put. But God says in Deuteronomy 1:6 says: "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites."
Too many times we are more focused on protecting past blessings and good experiences than taking enemy territory! It is then that we start doing ministry out of memory and stop doing ministry out of imagination. We start repeating the past and stop creating the future. And then we stop taking the risks that got us to where they are today.
Note this: The greater your past successes and blessings, the greater the danger. You're been so good at what you do that you have stop growing for the future. You are too satisfied with your past. You have congratulated yourself too soon. And you'll never reach your God-given potential. It's so easy to become comfortable. It's so easy to live in the past. It's so easy to keep doing it the way it's always been done. None of us is an exception here.
Breaking routine and the familiar and doing the novel is one way to overcome the natural complacency that sets in at some point in our journey. You're always breaking camp! It doesn't allow you to get too comfortable!
Are you ready to break camp?
