We are continuing our 30 Days of Gratitude! If you missed the scoop about why we’re celebrating, be sure to check out Episode One. Yesterday, we talked about the fact that it is not too late. Today, we’re going to be discussing Day Seventeen’s topic: The Point of No Return.
I’m sure you know all about the point of no return. When you’re on a trip, there is a certain point in your journey where it would be pointless to turn around because you are closer to where you’re going than you are to where you came from. That’s where we are on this journey. You’re closer to the end of this thirty-day journey than you were when we first began. Not only that, but I wholeheartedly believe that you are closer to your destiny than you have ever been. It would not make any sense to turn around now.
Sometimes when we really launch out into the deep, it seems like all hell breaks loose. It seems like you were better off where you came from. Remember when the children of Israel set out for the Promised Land? They felt the same way. They felt like they were better off where they came from. They got weary on their journey. However, the only thing they could do was move forward. It would have made no sense to turn back. I’m gonna read an excerpt from my book, but I want to tell you why I’m grateful this morning. I’m grateful because I have come too far to turn around. I don’t have everything I want. I don’t even feel like I have everything I need. But I’ve made it this far. I made it further than people thought I would make it. I made it further than the enemy thought I would make it. And for THAT… I’m mighty grateful. Aren’t you?
Here’s the excerpt:
“Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, ‘Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.’ So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, ‘Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.’ So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.”
II Kings 7:3-8 (ESV)
Let me tell you about these lepers.
They were presented with an opportunity. They couldn't function among the citizens of the town, because they were LEPERS. They were unclean. They couldn't mingle with the regular people.
They were at the gate, and they had a decision to make. If they sat there, they were going to die. Hands down. No doubt about it. If they went to the city, they would die, because there was a famine in the city. They didn't really know what would happen if they went to the camp of the Syrians. It was possible that they would die there, too.
These lepers weren't born at the gate. Their journey had brought them to the gate. That gate life wasn't working for them, though. Sound familiar? You didn't just wake up one day and say, "Today I believe I'll struggle with suicidal thoughts. Today I'll try to end my life." You didn’t do that. You didn't just randomly buy this devotional because you had nothing better to do with your life. Your journey led you here.
