Entries & Exits

The letter of the day is E. Not a lot of E-words come to mind other than eyes, emotion, exude, emote, and excel. Rather than use any of those I have decided to focus on the e’s that keep coming up in my reading-entry and exit.

As the Israelites where traversing from Egypt in route to the place of promise, several warnings were issued about how to act when they finally entered the land. In summary, they were advised of three key areas:

1. Obedience

2. Temptation to Compromise

3. Keeping First Things First

Failure in these areas meant the difference in them just entering but only passing through and them entering in and being established. Are these not the exact challenges we each encounter today when faced with the opportunity to enter and occupy new places in our lives? Does not matter if the new place is a relationship, career, ministry endeavor, or hobby. We will have to fight tendencies to want to do things our own way rather than obey God’s voice. If we do not stay alert, areas of compromise will creep in. Seeing how others do it will have us venturing off the path set out for us. And, the busyness, pleasure, and perks of the good place can squeeze out our time for the one who made it all possible.

Entering into a place by nature means we are exiting out of another. Some places I have exited with regret and others with enthusiasm. Just as some places in life I have entered feeling elated but others with a bit of mixed emotions. Regardless of the emotions, I don’t want to be forced to exit the places of promise prematurely because I failed to keep the proper balance.