No one said that it would be easy!

No one said that it would be easy!

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.”           Exodus 3:19 (NASB)

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

The plans for our life are not always filled with easy roads to travel. If this were so, what need would there be for us to trust God? As arrogant as we are we would surely forget who He really is as soon as the bumps and pot holes in the road causes the travel to become difficult.

If for one second we consider that God is only present when things are going smoothly, we only need to remember our history here in America and the voyages of our ancestors through the Middle Passage. Packed like sardines in a can or cords of wood on a ship sailing seas rougher than any hurricane that you or I have lived through, they endured.

Not without sacrifice, lost lives, moments of cursing God they arrived to what seemed to them an adventure; lost in space on a planet with inhabitants that looked stranger than any platypus or rhino or hippopotamus. Even the people looked different – there were no Ashanti, Dogon, Pygmies, Tutsi, Zulu and San people. Instead there were red skinned people and the white people who stole them from their homelands.

Difficult times produce stronger people like the Zande Warrior – Central African tribal killers that disrupted the old slave trade and spread their empire through the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Unlike the biblical stories of the Jews in the Bible, when they were given freedom from the Egyptians after hundreds of years of bondage, they left for the Promised Land. However, God didn’t send them an easier way; even though it was longer it wasn’t a course that they would venture into Philistine country where they would have to fight tooth and nail to survive the wars.

In God’s plans there is always something more profound in store.

God uses our periods in the deserts and valleys situations to teach and develop His people who He has called to be His soldiers.

Our desert experiences may be the slaughtering of innocent lives, even the killing of those who are supposed to be protecting us through the implementation of “policing”.

We may want to choose the easy road of going out and reacting with violence; yes for a moment it may feel good to retaliate violence with violence but that easy road would lead us to disaster.

The endearing road of heart aches and pain from all sides should make and mold us into a nation for our successful passage into the place of understanding and accepting one’s difference.

Our God is exact, and we can have faith in Him to direct us and love us no matter what we are confronted with. We may not comprehend the motive for the route we are on, but we can have confidence in Him to help us grow in belief and be developed into His perfect plan for us as we go through deserts and valleys.

“Lord, our way seems to be dark and dreary right now and there appears to be no way out except through death and destruction. We cannot see the path ahead, so we are depending on You to put us on the right path. Please Lord, reassure us, and communicate to us as we look to You to direct our path. Amen.”

GOD’S TECHNIQUE IS ALWAYS CORRECT—POSTPONEMENT FROM FLESHLY DESIRES WITH LONG-SUFFERING FOR HIM.