Post by cspain03 on Jun 29, 2014 18:48:28 GMT
Happy Sunday to you all. I pray you all were able to make it to the house of God today and receive a word and be encouraged through worship :-)
From this chapter, these verses stood out to me:
12 Isn't this what we told you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'"
13 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still."
15 The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
16 And as for you, lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.
How often do we find ourselves thinking, feeling, acting like the Israelites - we question change or deliverance from something because it's hard? Kia and I have mentioned this attitude previously, but it really boils down to her point of trusting God and "acting right" in our wilderness. Before this part of the story, we are informed that God purposefully took the Israelites the long way through the desert, instead of forcing them to fight the Philistines to get to the Promise Land. God knew that they were not in a position yet to fight and be encouraged enough not to turn back and return to Egypt. How many times have we found ourselves having to "take the long way to our blessing" because of fear or doubt? But, bring us back here, you can see the Israelites were upset with Moses - Pharaoh had found out that the Israelites were "wandering" in the desert and his heart again was hardened by the Lord and he and his servants thought themselves foolish for releasing their "free labor" - so they go after what they feel is theirs, BIG MISTAKE. The mistake was, after ALL that happened, not realizing the the Israelites were GOD's people, they weren't meant for Pharaoh to control/mistreat anymore. Ironically, the Israelites had the same WRONG mindset as the Egyptian rules. We must be careful not to allow earthly power/leaders to make us feel at our best we are their "free labor" - WE BELONG TO THE ALMIGHTY KING, we are a chosen race, a ROYAL priesthood, we are NOT meant to be SLAVES and we need to act like it. It doesn't mean being cocky or rude, but it means knowing our worth and knowing the LOVE God has for us and trusting that we aren't meant to be subjects to any person, we are only meant to serve and love God with all our heart, mind and soul. We shouldn't never settle for bondage to man simply because the journey to our Promise Land is difficult/through the wilderness (truthfully, if we had our act together, God would take us the short way cause we'd have faith enough to FIGHT the Philistines, but I digress…)
I am further encouraged by verses 13-14: God know's that we aren't always strong enough or trusting enough to fight, that's why all He is requiring us to do is 1) not fear and 2) stand still for HE will fight our battles. His word is true and we but need to believe and stand firm in it. It's certainly a challenge and I am sure some of us would rather fight because it only requires us to trust in ourselves - but there is the challenge. Will we trust God enough to fight our battles for us?! Will be trust Him enough to not let fear rule over us? It's a tall order, but I believe we can, should, NEED to use this what is being laid out before us in Exodus as encouragement, because the Lord did provide and did deliver - God fought for the Israelites, all they had to do was keep walking (makes be think of Mary-Mary's song: "I'm walking, I'm walking, I'm walking…") God separated the camps with the same pillar of fire and smoke that He had been leading the Israelites with so that they wouldn't be discouraged or caught up in looking back behind them at the approaching enemy (or try to turn back to slavery) but were forced to move forward - for they were not meant to see those Egyptians ever again. Sometimes we need to allow God to separate our line of sight from our past/the old things that are holding us back, causing us to doubt so that we can MORE FORWARD! Keep walking y'all and trust God in every step. If we continue to face forward we can bare witness to the wonders that God will do, we can witness Him parting our person "Red Sea" and using that to destroy our enemies as we make it over on dry land.
Lastly, v. 15-16 I feel are really encouraging for you all how have "leadership" as your spiritual gift: God told Moses in the beginning what he needed to do and God expected Moses to do just that. God didn't bring them this far to have them turn around or be defeated. God had given Moses all he needed from the beginning, before Moses ever made the first request to Pharaoh, God had equipment him with EXACTLY what he needed. Often in stressful times or times of change, it's easy to forget that we've already been given all we needed and we already have our instructions, we just need to rely on the Lord. There is no need for doubt or to question or to cry out to God, we simply need to use what He's already given us. So, y'all be encouraged, trust in God and what He has already given you and USE IT! Don't hold back, what you need is already in your hand, USE IT! It's a great task to have to lead, especially a group of "our people" (you know how we can be! smh) but continue to give instruction as God leads you and use what you have been given to carry out God's Will.
Alright y'all, have a blessed rest of this beautiful sunday ! love y'all, stay encouraged
From this chapter, these verses stood out to me:
12 Isn't this what we told you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'"
13 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again.
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still."
15 The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
16 And as for you, lift up your staff and extend your hand toward the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.
How often do we find ourselves thinking, feeling, acting like the Israelites - we question change or deliverance from something because it's hard? Kia and I have mentioned this attitude previously, but it really boils down to her point of trusting God and "acting right" in our wilderness. Before this part of the story, we are informed that God purposefully took the Israelites the long way through the desert, instead of forcing them to fight the Philistines to get to the Promise Land. God knew that they were not in a position yet to fight and be encouraged enough not to turn back and return to Egypt. How many times have we found ourselves having to "take the long way to our blessing" because of fear or doubt? But, bring us back here, you can see the Israelites were upset with Moses - Pharaoh had found out that the Israelites were "wandering" in the desert and his heart again was hardened by the Lord and he and his servants thought themselves foolish for releasing their "free labor" - so they go after what they feel is theirs, BIG MISTAKE. The mistake was, after ALL that happened, not realizing the the Israelites were GOD's people, they weren't meant for Pharaoh to control/mistreat anymore. Ironically, the Israelites had the same WRONG mindset as the Egyptian rules. We must be careful not to allow earthly power/leaders to make us feel at our best we are their "free labor" - WE BELONG TO THE ALMIGHTY KING, we are a chosen race, a ROYAL priesthood, we are NOT meant to be SLAVES and we need to act like it. It doesn't mean being cocky or rude, but it means knowing our worth and knowing the LOVE God has for us and trusting that we aren't meant to be subjects to any person, we are only meant to serve and love God with all our heart, mind and soul. We shouldn't never settle for bondage to man simply because the journey to our Promise Land is difficult/through the wilderness (truthfully, if we had our act together, God would take us the short way cause we'd have faith enough to FIGHT the Philistines, but I digress…)
I am further encouraged by verses 13-14: God know's that we aren't always strong enough or trusting enough to fight, that's why all He is requiring us to do is 1) not fear and 2) stand still for HE will fight our battles. His word is true and we but need to believe and stand firm in it. It's certainly a challenge and I am sure some of us would rather fight because it only requires us to trust in ourselves - but there is the challenge. Will we trust God enough to fight our battles for us?! Will be trust Him enough to not let fear rule over us? It's a tall order, but I believe we can, should, NEED to use this what is being laid out before us in Exodus as encouragement, because the Lord did provide and did deliver - God fought for the Israelites, all they had to do was keep walking (makes be think of Mary-Mary's song: "I'm walking, I'm walking, I'm walking…") God separated the camps with the same pillar of fire and smoke that He had been leading the Israelites with so that they wouldn't be discouraged or caught up in looking back behind them at the approaching enemy (or try to turn back to slavery) but were forced to move forward - for they were not meant to see those Egyptians ever again. Sometimes we need to allow God to separate our line of sight from our past/the old things that are holding us back, causing us to doubt so that we can MORE FORWARD! Keep walking y'all and trust God in every step. If we continue to face forward we can bare witness to the wonders that God will do, we can witness Him parting our person "Red Sea" and using that to destroy our enemies as we make it over on dry land.
Lastly, v. 15-16 I feel are really encouraging for you all how have "leadership" as your spiritual gift: God told Moses in the beginning what he needed to do and God expected Moses to do just that. God didn't bring them this far to have them turn around or be defeated. God had given Moses all he needed from the beginning, before Moses ever made the first request to Pharaoh, God had equipment him with EXACTLY what he needed. Often in stressful times or times of change, it's easy to forget that we've already been given all we needed and we already have our instructions, we just need to rely on the Lord. There is no need for doubt or to question or to cry out to God, we simply need to use what He's already given us. So, y'all be encouraged, trust in God and what He has already given you and USE IT! Don't hold back, what you need is already in your hand, USE IT! It's a great task to have to lead, especially a group of "our people" (you know how we can be! smh) but continue to give instruction as God leads you and use what you have been given to carry out God's Will.
Alright y'all, have a blessed rest of this beautiful sunday ! love y'all, stay encouraged