{"id":268,"date":"2026-09-02T08:33:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/?p=268"},"modified":"2026-09-02T08:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:33:31","slug":"september-2-2026-852-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"September 2, 2026, 8:52 AM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

God<\/em>: Joshua, I have told you your future is good<\/em>. Are you willing to wait for it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> No. How can I live like things are good when the good is coming<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) That\u2019s not how I see it. If this is where you\u2019re at, there\u2019s good to be had here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I\u2019ve led you to this point. Have I?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> \u2026I think so. Although I veered off years back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> [\u2026] Am I big enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> Joshua, I have a question. Which is the problem: not having what I\u2019ve told you you will<\/em>, or not holding what I\u2019ve already given to you<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> \u2026um\u2026 besides my emotions that I\u2019m really good at suppressing, what am I not holding onto that you\u2019ve already given to me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) No. I didn\u2019t say you\u2019re not holding onto it\u2014you\u2019re not holding<\/strong><\/em> it. It may be in your backpack, but something should be right in front of you nonstop. What have you kept in your [backpack]?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> \u2026joy? Community? Contacts with other people? Today God Taught Me? More projects? Rest? Exercise? What?!<\/em> I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re driving at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> Kiddo, hope<\/em>. I don\u2019t want you missing the good today<\/em>. But you twist hope backwards, thinking \u201cthat is when I can be happy\u201d. Do you feel bad<\/em> if you are happy with less than my best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> \u2026well, isn\u2019t that insulting? I\u2019ve heard that we shouldn\u2019t stay back and be satisfied with what we have, when you have more in store for us<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> [(flatly, but not meanly:)] Wow. Completely unbiblical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I celebrate the Israelites when they complained in the wilderness? \u201cOh, the Promised Land is so good<\/em>, OF COURSE you\u2019d be unhappy now! Keep that tension and anger, it\u2019ll get you through!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No<\/em>. I wanted them to trust me. Not just for the Promised Land, but for the today<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t just have their provision in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had their provision in hand<\/em>, in the \u201cwhat\u2019s that\u201d, in the manna<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To a land flowing with milk and honey, with some food with a taste reminiscent of the promise. But it wasn\u2019t the promise<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a promise<\/em>. But not the promise<\/em>. You\u2019re afraid that if you enjoy now, I\u2019ll get angry, because that must mean you\u2019ll stay stagnant<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua:<\/em> Well\u2026 I heard a lot of sermons about moving forward, and not staying stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God:<\/em> (shakes head) Don\u2019t stay stuck when I\u2019ve told you to move forward. But don\u2019t move forward if I tell you to hold. The Israelites were meant to stay under the cloud until it moved<\/em>; nobody would\u2019ve been a hero for trudging ahead beyond it. I wasn\u2019t waiting for them to move so I could move, I wanted them to move with me<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(leans in) Joshua, enjoying the present isn\u2019t contradictory to hope in the promise<\/em>. You don\u2019t know how to hold both: both joy in the moment, and hope for the promise. You have to learn how to hold both<\/em>; otherwise, you\u2019ll never rest<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua, the Israelites wanted to go back to where I had pulled them out of<\/em><\/strong>. That<\/em> was the issue. If they loved the wilderness, and my provision, and my presence, and then also got excited about the Promised Land, there would be no issue<\/em>. The children of Israel were not enjoying the present<\/em>; but they were longing for the past<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The present becomes the past. Enjoy the present while it is present. When it becomes past, be grateful for what I did, understand what I pulled you out of<\/em>, and enjoy the new present. Not every present is as peaceful as every past; but count it all joy<\/em>. You can count peace as joy, just as you can count trial as joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality was, you were just starting your life <\/em><\/strong>[when you heard those sermons].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those messages about \u201cnot staying stagnant\u201d were targeted towards people in their forties and fifties who had seen my hand, and wanted the same<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not wanted my hand again\u2014wanted my hand the same way<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You had never had an experience of my hand [upon you]. [Remembering] What happened six months ago wasn\u2019t you staying stagnant<\/em>, it was you [being] aware of what I had just done<\/strong><\/em>. Yes, there is always more<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But staying under my cloud isn\u2019t staying stagnant. Staying stagnant is staying still WHEN I MOVE<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God: Joshua, I have told you your future is good. Are you willing to wait for it? Joshua: No. How can I live like things are good when the good is coming? God: (shakes head) That\u2019s not how I see it. If this is where you\u2019re at, there\u2019s good to be had here. If I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}