Press the arrow to listen to Jeremy Camp sing “There Will Be a Day” as you read today’s devotion about the challenges of new opporutnities.

Scripture
“…the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours….” Joshua 17:18

Observation
I cried most of the day of my 25th birthday. Just two months into my first pastorate, the pincers of a divided church had pierced through to my heart.  In my prayers I imagined that I had been dropped off on the shore of an island covered with sharp thorn bushes and it was my job to clear the land.

The Lord has no problem giving us opportunity. But we have a problem with what stands in our way. It may be a forest to clear, or hard leadership calls to make, debt to clear, conflict to resolve or paint to scrape before we can experience all that God has for us.

Opportunities can discourage us when God gives them. There is always an obstacle he deliberately puts in our path. Why does he do that? Is he against us? No, the challenges are proof that he is for us. He knows that these obstacles will bring the best out of us.

Application
I served long enough to see the thorn bushes in my first church pulled out by the roots. In time a new church building was built and the the congregation multiplied five times in size. I am glad that my ministry started the hard way, for that past endurance gives me today present strength to dig up the thorn bushes God has put in front of me.

Prayer
Father, help me to claim all of the land you have intended for me. Amen.