Have you ever considered that you can walk with God your entire life and not reach your destiny? Not become the person that God created you to be? If you don’t think this is true, consider the Israelites in the wilderness. We know that God was with them: He provided manna for their food and went before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out…Even so, we also know that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years because of their choice.

What really happened here? What was the missing attribute that kept them from God’s best for their lives? The evidence points to “courage”, or rather a lack of courage. When the leaders of the twelve tribes, including Joshua and Caleb went to spy out the Promised Land, they all saw the same things. In Numbers 13:27 they give this account: …”We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. ” All the explorers saw the same bounty. They also saw the same obstacles that they would need to overcome.

Joshua and Caleb were ready to forge on across the Jordan River into the land the Lord had promised to them (Num 13:30), and yet the other ten leaders and explorers, seeing the same formidable enemies disagreed with Joshua and Caleb. They didn’t believe they could defeat these adversaries (Num 13:31), and they spread their bad report among the Israelites. The people wailed and whined and carried on, even wishing they had stayed in Egypt.

Did you ever wonder how all the explorers could have looked at the same bounty, and the same adversaries and come to such different conclusions? I submit to you that the key is indeed “courage”.  Joshua and Caleb had courage in their heart and so even though they saw the obstacles, they also could see how to overcome the enemy. The other leaders, in the absence of courage, could only see the enemy and no good outcome. When the Israelites tried to justify their actions, God called it rebellion. Have you ever known that you should do one thing, and then quickly justified not doing it with some rationale? We like to call this making excuses or justifying ourselves, but God may well be calling it rebellion.

I do believe that the missing ingredient for many of us today is courage. With courage our problems will look different. We talk a lot about character but knowing what is right is not very important or beneficial unless we have the courage to DO what is right. If we expect to reach our destiny, to become the people that God has created us to be, we must be people of courage, individually and corporately.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because God is for you, and with you (even like He was with the Israelites) that you are walking in God’s will for your life. God stayed with the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness but they never reached their destiny. 

What do you need courage for today? Do you have personal conflicts with friends, family members or others that you should deal with? Have made up excuses to justify the situation instead of risking your own vulnerability or rejection? Are you in a place where you need to make a stand for biblical principles but are instead justifying yourself to protect your reputation? Do you look the other way when it is time to pray for healing, or deliverance for others, lest you be seen to not succeed?  Have you become so risk averse that you are in danger of missing out on God’s purpose for your life?

Today please consider the high cost of avoiding risk taking. The cost isn’t your reputation, or your affluence. The cost very well may be that you are sacrificing your destiny, for the wilderness.