He has brought you to this place

At night when I do my daily Bible reading, I pray first and ask God what He has for me. What nugget of truth in this random selection of the Bible was designed for my heart on this night. Last night I got something powerful. Deuteronomy 1:29-31 "Don't be shocked or afraid of them! The LORD your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw Him do in Egypt. And you saw how the LORD your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now He has brought you to this place." This was especially impactful because I had just read a reminder of the Israelites asking God to allow them to send out spies into the Promised Land, to scout it. The Lord allowed them to do this, but it was disasterous. They were overcome by fear at what they heard, went into total revolt, and all but 2 of them (Joshua and Caleb) were denied entrance to the Promise Land for their unbelief. And I immediately thought - oh no! Is that me? Am I suffering the consequences of a poor decision? God will at times use His permissive will to allow us to do things that were not His soveriegn will, but if we do not stay close close close, it will not turn out well... And then I read the scripture above. Do not be afraid, the Lord is going ahead of you, He will FIGHT for you. How many of us need to hear that Word? You are not alone! And then a reminder to look back, to remember all of the ways that He cared for me in the past. How well He has loved me, blessed me, protected me in the wilderness ~ just as a father cares for his child. We are treasured. And then I think how the Israelites must have felt like I do at times. The places where they experienced their greatest failures, and lack of trust, were times that looked pretty desolate. Times of no food, no water, or times of listening to the testimony of 10 men who are telling you that the situation is BLEAK, they scouted it out - they SAW with their own eyes, being told, we cannot conquer this situation. And sometimes, I am tempted to believe those same lies. Sometimes I am tempted to think God just must not be working because things are going from bad to worse. But that is not truth! Truth is that though the situation is bleak, and I am not strong enough to conquer it, and in human terms it is impossible... I serve the LORD God almighty - who ALREADY has conquered it. See there, "he is going ahead of you."vs 30. Just look back and see His faithfulness, and then follow Him as He fights for you. And last of all, my favorite line... He has brought you to this place. I am here on purpose. I am not here on accident. I am not here because of my sin, or another person's sin or failure. I am here on purpose - brought here by the same faithful God who has proved Himself over and over again in the wilderness. He has a mighty plan for this time, for THIS place. He has Kingdom purposes for me - right here. And I believe that wherever we find ourselves, after whatever has happened... if we will surrender fully to the Lord, it instantly becomes His plan, His place for us, and His purposes will be fufilled. Surrender is what snatches us out of Satan's hand and places us at the foot of the cross, where grace pours down over us. I am exactly where the Lord would have me to be, praise God!