Living in the Promised Land
Keeping success can often be harder than obtaining it.
I sat in my tiny closet/office, staring at the walls. I was like the proverbial dog who catches the car. I didn’t know what to do with myself now that I finally got where I wanted” I was a bona fide youth pastor. It said so on the door and everything. I was even getting paid (kinda) full-time. I’ve always wanted to be a paid staff person at a church, and now I was at the age of 23. But I soon realized I didn’t know what to do with myself.
It can be that way with lots of things. We work hard for something, but we don’t know what to do afterward once we get it. This happens to the nation of Israel when they finally end their journey to the land promised to Abraham. They spent 40 years wandering in the desert, trying to get to the promised land. God used that time in the desert to shape and refine them into his people. But once they arrived in the promised land, it seemed like they forgot how to live close to God.
The stories of this in the Bible are too numerous to count. The men and women who were once close to God fell away, especially once they found success or what they had been looking for. David, Moses, Solomon, and others all wandered from God. The reasons range from strife and laziness to indulgence and pride. But scripture and our lives show this fact: living in the promised land is hard.
It’s easier to be an underdog and find the will to fight when you think you have something to prove. Every sports team that wins a title says, “Nobody believed in us,” even when they have been ranked #1 all season. There is something about the human mindset that doesn’t know what to do once we get what we worked so hard for, so we must convince ourselves that we must keep fighting or that everyone is against us.
It’s true in our spiritual life too. Right about the time we enter a consistent pattern of prayer, scripture reading, and church attendance is when it’s the easiest to fall out of the habit. The moment that things start to go well is when we expect things to go wrong. It’s always good to be prepared, of course, but if we want to live in the promised land and dwell in the place God has for us, we can do a few things to make that easier.
1. Keep the values that got you there.
It’s tempting to think that the attitude that keeps us in the promised land differs from the one that got us there, but it’s not. It’s doing the hard work of staying close to God and living as we should. A basketball player who achieves greatness through hard work and dedication can only keep that greatness through the same hard work. It’s true in the Christian life too. The way to grow close to God is through the daily disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and devotion. And the way to stay close to God is through the same methods. Many who find some level of success believe that they can now rest, and there is some truth to that.
But common sense also tells us that you cannot coast uphill. If you are coasting, you are going level at best, but more likely, you are going downhill. So keep up the hard work and values that brought you here. Israel learned total dependence on God in the desert, but when they arrived in the promised land, they soon forgot all that God had done for them. Don’t make the same mistake.
2. Find a balance between rest and work.
Anyone who has achieved great success will tell you it comes with a significant cost. Sadly sometimes that cost is family, friends, or even just enjoying life. Some people are so driven that they place their families on the altar of success. It happens to pastors, businessmen, athletes, and more. Anyone can be guilty of this. That’s why one requirement for living in the promised land is finding the balance between rest and work. But the burden of success makes us feel we must sacrifice everything to keep it.
It might seem contradictory to say that you need to continue working and that you need to rest on the next point, but that is the way life is. The even greater danger is that we lose our family and ourselves in the promised land too. This is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus. He asked, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” One of the requirements for living in the promised land is enjoying our success but finding our ultimate satisfaction and rest in God.
3. Take time to enjoy what God has done.
Anyone who has achieved success on any level knows that many helped them get there. Coaches, spouses, teammates, and more are part of the process. Living in the promised land means enjoying and appreciating What others have done for you and how they helped you along the way.
Part of the rest in the promised land is understanding that even with all your hard work, you didn’t do everything. God is the one who has got you where you are today. Your work and effort were necessary, but it wasn’t the only component. Many others have worked just as hard and have not achieved the same success. That doesn’t mean they are less than those who have made it big. Many lower-level people work just as hard and make as many sacrifices but don’t see the same success for many reasons. That’s why when you enter the promised land, you must sit and remember what God has done for you. Enjoying what God has done doesn’t take anything away from what you have done, but it also puts into perspective the blessings that God has given you.
All of this is easier said than done, of course. As much work as it takes to achieve success, staying there can be just that much work or more. However, by remembering what God has done for us and not abandoning the values that got us there, we can ensure we stay close to God and don’t fall away. Just like success is a choice, so is continued success. When Israel arrived in the promised land, they thought their 40-year journey was over. But in many ways, their journey was only starting. So likewise, our journey to stay close to God is never over until we arrive in the final promised land on the other side of death. Our entrance into eternal rest has nothing to do with our hard work, family, or sacrifices. Eternal life has everything to do with Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. Through the mercy of God, we can finally arrive in the final place, and we can rest there forever in Christ. There our work is finally finished, and we can rest knowing that we did nothing on our own to get there.