Monday, January 13, 2025

New Testament Reading Plan: John 6

We kicked off our new series, Are We There Yet?, this past weekend with some insight on how to measure the expectation gap. Ben shared a diagram from the book, The Gap and the Gain by author Dan Sullivan, that depicted two different views of the journey from start to the ideal.

• Gap thinking—focusing on how much farther we have to go to reach our goals. It highlights the gap between the start (where we are) and the ideal (where we want to be). This often leads to our feeling like we never achieve anything.
• Gain thinking—instead of focusing on the ideal, we measure the progress we’ve made from where we started, allowing us to celebrate how far we’ve already come.

Joshua 5:10
While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.

Joshua was Moses’ successor to lead the Israelites to conquer Canaan, the Jews’ Promised Land. In Gilgal, they celebrated the holiday of Passover on the same day that their ancestors had, but this particular celebration signified the transition from the wilderness to their Promised Land. Rather than focusing on all of the work necessary to conquer their new home, they praised God for everything he had already done.

Joshua 5:11-12
¹¹ The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. ¹² No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.

God provided manna for the Israelites while they were in the wilderness and continued to feed them until they produced crops from the land. He provided for them in their scarcity and led them into a place of prosperity.

As we work toward the ideal that God has for us, he promises to provide exactly what we need and to walk alongside us. By focusing on God’s faithfulness and how far we’ve come (our gain), we can avoid becoming overwhelmed by what the future holds and the distance to our goals (the gap).

Are you ready to stop focusing on the gap and start measuring the gain? This is better demonstrated by our bottom line: Celebrate progress instead of striving for arrival.

Questions:
Are you focusing on the gap or measuring the gain? What can you do to switch your mindset to measure the gain and find joy in the journey?

Next Steps:
Engage with 21 Days Prayer and Fasting by texting 21DAYS to 419-419-0707.

21 Days of Prayer

Day 8—My Calling

Prayer Focus: To Know my Calling (1 Peter 2:9) 

Prayer:
Dear Father, as a follower of Jesus, you have given me the right to be your child. You have set me apart and called me one of your chosen people. I can now show others your goodness and be a light to them in this dark world. Help me shine so others can see you. Amen.

Series Theme Verse:

Romans 12:2
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

This post was written by Jenn Macke, a Findlay attendee, and a regular contributor to the LivingItOut devotional.