Getting Forward

February 8–Numbers 8-10

“Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of testimony; and the sons of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai”(10:11-12).

It was a new day! Exciting! Having stayed for months at Sinai, having learned much from the Lord, the people woke one day to discover the cloud was moving! Without any warning, a new part of their journey began.

With reverence and hope, the people quickly packed and moved out in the prescribed order. Judah first. Then Isaachar. Then Zebulun. . . The tabernacle was taken down and carried forward in the line of march. What a spectacular sight it must have been! A new nation marching toward, ”a place that God will show you.”

We all come to such moments. Long enough at one place, in one stage of maturity, with familiar set of ideas about God and ourselves, in the Lord, the time will come for us to get forward. To change. To grow.

Paul spoke of this moment and the attitude required. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on. . .for the prize”(Philippians 3:13).

Are you ready, dear reader? Ready to embrace the inevitable and uncomfortable feelings that come with change? Are you willing? Courageous? Hopeful? Is your heart resolved to “not look back” as Lot’s wife did, with disastrous results?

The Savior is our example. “For the joy set before Him,” says Hebrews 12:2, indicating His intense focus on the Father and future, as He pressed toward the cross.

Progress is not really an option. It is, however, a choice of faith. Dear reader, as the Spirit beckons, will you let go of the past, its victories and its failures, and get forward with the Lord?

“For all that has been, thanks! For all that shall be, yes!” (Dag Hammarskjold).

“Lead on, O King eternal, the day of march has come; henceforth in fields of conquest your tents shall be our home. Through days of preparation your grace has made us strong; and now, O King eternal, we lift our battle song”(Ernest Shurtleff).

“When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them”(Acts 16:10).