First Christian Church of Plainville

Enjoy the journey! Have you ever been given that advice from a grandparent or maybe an elder? When you are groaning and complaining about how busy you are with the kids at home, or at work, or just in the every day madness of life, the advice to “enjoy the journey” is given to us to remind us how quickly life goes by and we are to enjoy the many pleasures of each day.

This would have been good advice for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert for 40 years heading from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel. The journey obviously should never have lasted 40 years, but God had a plan, and that plan was not so much about the destination as it was the journey.

Our study from The Story continued this week with the story of that journey through the desert. The Israelites were busy whining and complaining all along the way. They complained about not having anything to eat. They complained about the water. They complained about not having any meat. It was just one thing after another. They went so far as to beg to go back to Egypt where they had “a better lifestyle.”

But God had other plans. God was concerned not about where they were going, but what they were becoming. The Israelites needed to be transformed into a people that trusted God and would put Him before all others. God provided, but he also got tired of their complaining. He had to change their perspective.

The fact is, God is working to change our perspective each day as well. In the world we live in today, it is very easy to envy what others have. Others have more money, a better home, a nicer car, or a better job. We can get caught up into whining and complaining because we don’t have as much as someone else, when we should understand that we have it pretty good.

God is giving us “manna and quail” every day. We just have to appreciate what he is giving us. After all, we don’t deserve God’s blessing, but we can certainly appreciate it. Our worship should always be directed at what we receive each and every day. As the famous hymn states, we should count our blessings every day and count them one by one.

Take time in your worship this week to count your blessings. Name them each day. When you do that you will come to understand that you have been blessed, and it will change your perspective.