Place of ‘Almost’
- Jun 13, 2025
- 6 min read
Reading: Joshua 3:1 - "Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over."
Joshua chapters 3-4 tell the story of the crossing of the Jordan River. The river plays a pivotal role in the Bible, particularly in our story of Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Just go back to Joshua 1:2: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them.”
This is God’s first command recorded in Joshua.
The Israelites are in a liminal state, and the crossing of the Jordan into Canaan represents a huge shift from a life of wandering in the wilderness to a settled life in the Promised Land. We are often being invited across these thresholds, the spaces that have held us or restricted us in some way.
The Jordan River represents a liminal space between the 'no longer' and the 'not yet'; a place where people let go of their old way of being and embark on a new journey to a new place/space with new life. Yes, it’ll be a place of battle, but it can also be a place of blessings and grace. However, for so many it becomes the ‘Place of Almost!’
By the way, it’s seven hundred years since God first made the promise to Abraham of a new land, and in this chapter, as we will read, He keeps that promise.
Notice what our verse says: "Joshua and all the Israelites…went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over."
Richard Rohr says, “…where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible…This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealising normalcy.”
There’s a danger of being in such a space and ‘camping there.’
How often have we got to the threshold of crossing and just stopped, camped down? You may have been camping at such a place for weeks, months even years, but still not crossed over.
Place of Almost
The Jews now have the Promised Land BEFORE them; the wilderness remains BEHIND them, and yet the Jordan River is still BETWEEN them.
Many of us are facing ‘personal Jordans’ that feel so permanent and powerful that we don’t even think about crossing. Maybe your Jordan is an unbearable work situation? Or for you, it’s a valley of loneliness or despair? Perhaps you feel your world is caving in?
Then, this is for you!
Too many people have simply camped down and given up on the Promised Land. They are now in the Place of Almost. I almost won, I almost got the job, I almost got my degree... God does not want you and I to be an “almost people!” He has called us to get ready to “cross over”; to get ready to move out and follow Him!
I know that if we really could have our way, we would probably like God to pluck us out of the wilderness and set us down in the Promised Land. But that’s not how it works. God does not rescue or save us from the circumstances of our lives. Instead, God goes through those circumstances (our ‘Jordan’) with us. For every wilderness there is a Promised Land; and invariably, to reach the Promised Land there’s a camp to be dismantled and a Jordan that must be crossed (even if it is in full flood! See v15)
Too many people have become too comfortable in an uncomfortable place that God never intended for you to settle in. It was supposed to be a learning situation, a trusting place, not a life time situation of struggle, or regret, or of that constant thought ‘ALMOST!’ It’s been prepared as a resting place, not a place to dominate the rest of your life.
William Booth said, “The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”
When we've become too comfortable with things in our lives, or perhaps have accepted that compromise for too long, now it appears too difficult to make the changes necessary to re-align ourselves with God and His will.
Andrew Murray once said, “God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: ‘It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Phil. 2:13)? And that is what we should seek for―to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.”
We can then know transformation of our hearts and lives to move out of that Place of Almost.
Remember His promises. See Joshua 1:10-11: "Joshua ordered the officers of the people: 'Go through the camp and tell the people, Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”
What’s happened that has stopped us (so we think) from moving forward entering into those areas, places, ministries we had missed the chance on? Where have you given up? What needs to be fanned into flame to fully realise again the plans and purposes of God for your life? Even into areas where we have never been before!
Max Lucado shared that, “Pilgrims with no vision of the Promised Land become proprietors of their own land. They set up camp. They exchange hiking boots for loafers and trade in their staff for a new recliner."
We need to live as pioneers of faith and know His strength to truly live and get back on track in our walk of faith in Christ and our stand for Him.
Paul states in Philippians 3:12, "Not that I have already obtained all this … but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."
You may be thinking life has gone, I’m just too old, I’m happy to stay in the land of ‘Almost.’ Can I just remind you, Joshua was 80! So, age doesn’t come into it! We are never too old to launch out in faith and spend the rest of our life fulfilling the vision God has planted in our hearts.
H Blackaby said, “God can do anything that’s on His heart through the one who believes. The key is belief.”
It’s been said - “we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the morning program. We are aware that we only have a limited amount of time left to accomplish that which is really important – and that awareness illumines for us what really matters, what really counts. This conviction provides a new centre.”
If we don't know our goal or purpose, or if there’s no vision, we won’t have that 'new centre’, and sadly there will be a lack of priority and we will end up ‘camped down’ saying it doesn’t really matter anyway and remain in the ‘Place of Almost’.
Let’s have done with such a place and start to get ready to move on, to cross over.
Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message):
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
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