Wandering, waiting, or when what you hoped for doesn’t happen

 

We have recently been in the process of selling our first home in Colorado as we prepare our PCS to Florida. When we bought this home 3 years ago we were excited  to make the investment and do things to better the home for us, but also for when it came time to sell again. (Because as a military family, moving is inevitable and we knew we only had 3-4 years here.) 

Being young homeowners though has been full of hardships and hard lessons learned for us. But with any setback my husband and I hung on to the hope that, “It will all be worth it when we go to sell.”(That has become our motto the last few years it seems.)

We have put so much money into making this house a home. New flooring in upstairs bedrooms, painting the whole inside of the house, new closet doors, updated bathroom, new dishwasher, full home security and water system, new front door, rock and mulch beds outside, the list goes on and on. 

Now, it is finally time to sell.

And we are getting nothing. Yes you read that right. We are not making any money from selling our home. Our investment, our time, our energy, our money… amounts to nothing for us. 

Hmmm. When I started reflecting on this, and praying about it all, I was awoken one morning at 4 something with God reminding me of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years.

God called Moses to lead his chosen people out of Egypt and to lead them to the promised Land. They complained of their hardships, struggled to trust God during their hardships and ultimately said they would have rather still been slaves in Egypt still than to be facing the struggles they were up against. 

They ultimately refused to trust and be obedient to God to enter the land he had promised to them. So they were left wandering in the desert for 40 years. Still provided for, but this generation of people would not enter the promised land. However, God never falls short in fulfilling promises and the next generation of the Israelites did finally enter the promised land.

We will all wander and sometimes may feel like the Israelites in the desert. Wandering and waiting on something to happen for us or our situation. And just like the first generation of Israelites, who didn’t enter the promised land, we may never see what we are hoping for happen or be fulfilled. 

But we have something better to cling to and to put our hope in..

Jesus. 

And unlike the world whose promises are often never fulfilled and or guaranteed, Jesus gave us promises that change everything. That give actual hope. Promises that we as believers can cling to knowing we may have have to walk through the desert but we never have to stay in it.

Jesus is our promised land. 

There’s no more wandering and waiting when you put your hope and trust in Jesus. Through him and his blood shed on the cross, we are promised the forgiveness of our sins, eternal salvation, and we can rest knowing our futures are secured.