Canaan is closer than you think

Canaan is closer than you think

The journey from Egypt to Canaan was never meant to take forty years. Scripture tells us it was an eleven-day journey. Eleven days. A short distance. A reachable destination. A possible change of state.

Yet days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months turned into years. And before they knew it a generation had passed.

This is where the Bible stops being a history lesson and starts speaking directly to us.

The story is not about geography. It is about posture. It is about how we process change. How we respond to freedom. How we handle transition. How our inner world shapes the outcome of everything we put our hands to.

The promised land was attainable. Just like many of the things we desire today. Healing. Growth. Stability. Peace. Clarity. A new season. The distance is often not the issue. What slows the journey is divided attention. Complaining. Romanticising the past. Comparing where we are going with what we left behind. Longing for Egypt while walking toward Canaan. Worshipping other gods which in simple terms means scattered focus and misplaced trust.

That mindset stretches an eleven-day journey into forty years.

And this pattern did not end with the Israelites.

We still do this today. We do not usually doubt that change is possible. We doubt when it can happen. So, we push everything into the future. We attach timelines. We build stages. We create long processes. We tell ourselves it must take time. We say healing comes later. Resolution comes later. Joy comes later. Peace comes later.

I used to believe that. I believed in long processes and endless stages. This must happen first and then that and then something else before anything can change. And without realising it those beliefs diluted the power of the word. Just as Jesus said. Tradition can weaken truth. It can paralyse its effect.

That is why the story of Lazarus is so revealing.

When Jesus was told Lazarus was sick everyone believed his presence would change the situation. They were convinced of his ability. Yet when he delayed and Lazarus died the sisters said something striking. If you had been here this would not have happened.

Later when Jesus said Lazarus would rise, they agreed. Yes. We know. In the future.

That was the gap.

They believed in resurrection but only later. Jesus introduced resurrection as now. He did not say I will be the resurrection. He said I am.

The issue was never possibility. It was timing.

That is still our struggle. We believe God can act. We just believe it will take time. We move everything into the future because it feels safer. Because it fits our frameworks. Because it matches the stages we have learned. Even grief we divide into steps as though the soul must wait its turn.

But Jesus stands outside that logic and says now.

Now is where life happens. Now is where obedience happens. Now is where focus matters. Now is where faith is active. Not passive. Not postponed.

God is not asking for endless prayer cycles or prolonged fasting to convince him. He is inviting alignment. Acceptance. Presence. Agreement in the spirit before anything changes in the physical.

When we live always in later, we stretch eleven-day journeys into forty years. When we accept now, we shorten the road.

Do the work now. Focus now. Choose differently now. Release the past now. Stop dividing your attention now.

Canaan is closer than you think.