This book wasn't written to give you reasons to believe that there is a God. This is a book for people who believe in God, but don't always believe God. He wants us to love him, know him and believe him. In all ways. For exactly what his Word says.
The main points are:
God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God's Word is alive and active in me.
Anyone who truly loves the Lord knows exactly how big each of those points are. Each of those things are lofty enough to be their own book. This wasn't a book I could just read quickly to say I did it. There was real work involved. Sometimes you really think you trust God and truly take him at his word, but your faith through your actions shows otherwise. Thank Him that all he needs is faith the size of a mustard seed out of us!
Although every chapter provided new and old insights and provoked a lot of prayer and thought (I've got the circles under my eyes to prove it--I could only do one chapter at a time because I'd read, underline and make some notes in the margins, and then go through it again with God and pray through it at night. They were late nights.) my favorite part was the most challenging part. I think God had been preparing me for this read by introducing some of these topics through other books and conversations first. The chapter on Your Promised Land was difficult for me (your Promised Land being the place where God's personalized promises over your own life become a living reality and not a theological theory). I've been preoccupied for a long time with the stories of Gideon in the Bible and then the Israelites coming out of Egypt to wander in the desert (that whole encampment idea)for a long time. I've been waiting for God to do what he did for Gideon, which was encourage him to move and do what he was told he would do. I've been waiting for God to tell me when to move out of encampment like he did the Israelites, but also when to cross the river instead of just moving and stopping and moving and stopping. God's very direct with me. I know what he wants of me and for me. I know, partly, why. I'm like those Israelites wandering around for far too long in a desert while my Promised Land is just on the other side of the river. The author compared it to a small group of ducks she saw splashing in a mud puddle once when just over a small hill there was a perfect pond. I am the stupid duck in the mud puddle (you can't see it, but I'm actually laughing at that thought. My mud puddle is living with addicts and enablers. It's a life of repeated filth and hurt. I picture it like being next to a drowning person that doesn't know how to swim--they hang on to you and pull you under as well. They eventually kill you. The thought of the ducks splashing in mud at least makes me giggle.).
The author brought up that 1)God promised us a place of blessing. That God's willingness and unwavering desire to bless his people is one of the most repetitive concepts in both testaments. He's a Giver that exults when a child cooperates enough to receive those good gifts. 2) God promised us a place we could live. God promised Israel a place to dwell in blessing, not just visit. 3)He promised us a place where he brings forth a great harvest. It is truth that God wants to show his glory through using our lives to bear tremendous fruit. And that produce is of abounding variety because God's creative. 4) Lastly, God promised us an abiding place of great victory over our enemy. Our Promised Lands are characterized by the presence of victory, not the absence of opposition. If we're not occupying our Land, guess who is? But the author makes it clear that while many of God's promises are unconditional, His promises of blessing, abiding, fruit-bearing and conquering are not. We often forfeit it of our own free will. He offers it, but we don't take it. According to the author, "Promised Land theology becomes an earthbound reality only to those who cash in their fear and complacency for the one ticket out of their long inhabited wilderness." I believe that. I think deep down we all want that. We all have a place of blessing that God wants us to reach, but we have to choose it. God is a gentleman. He will never force us. We can freely reject those blessings. Often it's because we don't believe the five points I stated above.
"Blessing is bowing down to receive the expresions of divine favor that in the inner recesses of the human heart and mind make life worth the bother." I know I need to do that. Obey to receive. But I know life will be worth the bother--that I'll laugh more and smile easily and genuinely again--once I've done it. I know what I'm hoping for that makes life worth the bother. I'd say that this book, if nothing else, really helped me to believe those five points, especially that God can do what he says he can do. It's good to know that nothing, no matter how irrational or impossible it might seem, is too big for him. We are talking about the God who raised the dead, healed the blind, changed water into wine, walked on water and died for us....we might think something couldn't possibly be for us or apply to us, but I'd bet God would say otherwise. If he would die for us, would he really keep us from being blessed with goodness?
If anyone actually reads this, I hope you make it to your Promised Land too. God wants you to hope even when exercising that belief and faith is frightening or challenging or even seems impossible. Goodness and blessing is for you.