God has a purpose for every person. But His will for your life may not have begun with you. Your assignment may merely be the continuation of what He initiated in others years ago. If you are a leader in your church, God may have established that congregation a century ago. God’s will for it did not begin with your arrival! God may have begun a work in your family tree generations before you emerged on the scene. God may have been initiating a divine work in your community or company long before you arrived.
If those who went before us had not been faithful, we might not be where we are today. The key is to have the correct perspective. We must ask: “What has been passed down to me? What will I pass on to those who follow me?”
As great a man of faith as Abraham was, he never saw what Moses did. Nor did Isaac or Jacob. But they did fully experience God’s will for their life in their day. Likewise Joshua and his generation would experience God’s power in ways Moses would not. Each generation was meant to build on the ones that preceded it. How are you living, and leading? Are you acting as if everything began with you? Or, do you recognize you have been given a sacred trust from those who went before you? And, that those who follow you will one day take up your work and attempt to build upon it?