JOEL OSTEEN DAILY DEVOTIONAL SUNDAY 16TH APRIL 2023 – DON’T STAY WHERE GOD WAS

We all have times when things come to an end that we weren’t expecting. The company downsizes, and we’re let go. A relationship doesn’t work out. The door suddenly closes on a dream. It’s easy to get discouraged and say, “God, where were You?” But God is called “the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13). He has designed certain things to come to an end in order to move us into a new level of our destiny. We may not understand it, but it’s a necessary ending. Without that door closing, you wouldn’t see the greater things God has in store.

The same God who opens doors closes doors. Where you saw abundance in one season may seem like a famine in another. A friendship changes, and they move on. If you don’t understand that God has necessary endings, you’ll fight every closed door and try to hold on to things that God has brought to an end. He is “the author and the finisher.” When a door closes, take your fingers and your feelings off the door. Let it go. God never brings things to an end without having something better coming, something more rewarding, more fulfilling.

When God brought two million Israelites out of slavery, they were in the desert headed toward the Promised Land with nothing to eat. So every morning for forty years, God gave them manna, something like bread that formed on the ground. Wherever they went, they could count on this supernatural provision. But after the first time they ate food from the Promised Land, “The manna ceased, and they never saw manna again” (Joshua 5:12).

After four decades, imagine their concern the next morning when there’s no manna. The reason God stopped the manna is because they were satisfied to live off it for the rest of their lives, but He was not satisfied. He was taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of abundance. The manna ceasing was a necessary ending. God stopped the manna to push them into the fullness of what He had for them.

When something comes to an end, when what’s worked in the past doesn’t work anymore, don’t stay where God was. Go to where God is, go into the new thing. It doesn’t mean the old was bad. The manna you had was for a good season. Be grateful for the time you had with a friend, for the opportunity, for the life of your loved one who passed. That was all a part of God’s plan for your life, but don’t get stuck in the old. God changes seasons to push us into supernatural provision, new opportunities, new growth, and new relationships.