As I exited the highway, I noticed a sign in an empty grass lot across from my subdivision .  It read, “Upscale Grocery Store, Coming Soon.”  My heart literally skipped a beat.  I know what you’re thinking…Wow, this girl gets oddly excited about the construction of a new grocery store.

Maybe I should explain.

I had been praying for a job closer to home.  When I saw the sign, my mind began to race. Could this be it?  Will the store have a pharmacy inside of it that I could work at? And if it does, will they even hire me? At that moment, I felt God say, “That’s Yours.”

In the book of Joshua chapters 19 & 20, God is assigning portions of the Promised Land to the tribes of Israel. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, God says to each man in so many words, “That’s yours.”

The Simeonites received territory within Judah, the tribe of Zebulan had its boundary as far as Sarid. Issachar’s allotment included Jezreel…every allotment was strategically assigned by God.

In Joshua 19, we are told the final allotment of land was given. It went to Joshua.

“When they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua the town he asked for- Timnath Serah.”  Scholars say the land wasn’t anything fancy…but to Joshua, it was his ‘territory of inheritance.’  Joshua had been ready and waiting for this for forty years.  In Hebrew, the name Timnath Serah means ‘City of the sun.’ It signifies a ‘Portion of abundance,’ or God’s abundant provision.

Joshua 19:50 goes on to say, “And he built the town and settled there.”

I believe God has given each of us an allotment.  The schools and churches we attend, the jobs we go to, the gyms or coffee shops we frequent, our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities…it may not look like much at first, but we must remember, God has strategically placed us there. He is saying, “That’s yours.  That’s your allotment, your sphere of influence, your Timnath Serah.”

By the way,  about a year after seeing that sign, the empty grass lot was transformed into a beautiful grocery store…and God was right, it was mine. For the past ten years, it’s been my Timnath Serah. A place of God’s abundant provision.

Wherever God places us, He entrusts us. However long or short the season, let us be faithful.

-Binu