Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
When God promises something, it is His destination for us. It is a time and a place and an event that he destines for us in the future. He has the pathway mapped out for us, He has the rest stops for us, He has the filling stations prepared for us and He has already prepared the final destination for us. Our biggest job is not trying to figure out how, or why doesn't it look like it, or when will we get there.
We get bogged down in those things and lose our focus on His destination for us. Abraham and Sarah did. One day Sarah came to Abraham and convinced him that she had figured it out. We know the story and know that she was terribly wrong. She created a set of circumstances that still haunts the children of Israel today. In all her 'figuring out' about God's will for their lives, she never stopped to ask God if that was the right direction for them to go. One important thing that we need to grasp. If we can figure it out, then it probably isn't God's will for us.
For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9
We will get to God's destination faster if we let Him drive. After all, it is His plan. He has already figured it out. He already knows the when and the how. Why don't we be content and sit in the back seat, put on a good worship CD, crank the volume and pay absolutely no attention to what anybody else says? We will get there faster and without any jangled nerves.
We have to be like Jesus. He SET His Father's promise in His own cruise control and let the Father organize the trip. His main focus was staying in an up-to-date relationship with His Father.
Before we go any further with this thought, let's get this point nailed down. Get it out of your head that the cross was Jesus' destination. The cross was just a stinky town. I know that we sing a lot about it and preachers preach a lot about it and rightly so. The preaching of the cross is necessary. But, it was not His destination. His destination was to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8.
Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus endured the cross. It wasn't His destination. It was His stinky town. It was one of those things He had to go THROUGH not build His life around. The joy that was set before Him was not the beatings, the hate, the bigotry, the mocking, or the doubt of His closest friends. Does any of that sound familiar to you? Is that what you're going through right now? Those of us that are praying for souls and believing God for His destinations will go through stinky towns with those names on them. Amen?
Just like Jesus, let's fellowship with the driver of our vehicle. That is, unless it's you that's doing the driving. Set your heart on His promise/destination and wait patiently on the Lord (Ps 40:1). Let us rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4). And, in every thing give Him thanks (1 Thess 5:18). And, what we don't enjoy in life, just endure until we get to His destination.
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