The Best Adventure for 2024
Looking for some excitement this year? You make be one of the 44 percent who made New Years resolutions a few days ago. Or maybe you set some goals or created a 2024 bucket list. If it’s not too late to add to your list (spoiler alert: it’s not), let me challenge you to add an adventure to your list.
Get your feet wet.
When the Israelites came to the end of their forty-year vacation in the wilderness, they stood at the bank of the Jordan River. It was time to enter the land promised to them, but first they had to cross the river. Don’t look at this river like the Texan in me viewed it. Living in west Texas for many years, I crossed a lot of bridges over creeks (properly pronounced “cricks”) which were … HEY, WHERE’S THE WATER? At certain times of the years, rainwater runoff may transform these dry beds into creeks (cricks), but much of the time they were dusty indentions in the landscape. That was not the case with the Jordan River. In fact, at this time, the Jordan was overflowing its banks. Crossing it would not be easy.
But God had a plan—an adventurous plan. The priests were to carry the ark of the covenant—which was the presence of God among the people—into the Jordan. The waters would part, and the people would cross without getting their sandals wet. It was a beautiful picture. God would go before them and make it possible for them to cross. Cool story, huh?
But God didn’t part the waters first. The priests had to step into the water first.
“When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah — the Dead Sea — was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho” (Josh. 3:14-16).
It’s easy to cross many a creek in Texas. It would be just as easy to cross the Jordan River at flood stage if the waters were already parted. But God wouldn’t part the water until the priests acted on His word. That’s faith: acting on what God says. And these priests were literally stepping out on faith.
But for them to experience God’s great work, they had to get their feet wet.
2024 can just be another year. Or it could be an incredible adventure of seeing God work in you and around you. For too many of us, we set our sights on losing a few pounds, reading more books, or taking that trip we’ve always wanted to take, but we’re setting our sights too low.
Read God’s Word. Make this a daily habit. But don’t just read it. Act on what God says. Do what He calls you to do. Take God at His Word and step out in faith. It’s a great adventure of trust in the One who holds 2024 in His hands.
Get your feet wet.
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Banner photo by Vincentiu Solomon on Unsplash.
