Our God is Eager to Bless Us

Last week, we read in Deuteronomy 28 about the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience that God laid out for His people. It was a stark reminder that God is serious about our obedience...and He should be. His people are intended to reflect His nature, His name, His glory.

I couldn't help but notice that the section on curses was much longer than the section on blessings. Maybe that's because God knew Israel (and all people after them) would seem to be disobedient more often than they were obedient. But don't miss it...God comes back to blessing in chapter 30. Knowing that His people will turn from Him and rebel against Him, He promises that when they repent He will forgive them and bless them. He will restore and prosper them. And not just a little - "abundantly"!

How many of us love to quote Jeremiah 29:11? "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future." I love that verse. But you know what I love even more about that verse? It's God speaking to His people during their exile. They have rebelled and failed miserably as the people of God and He is drawing them back. He is faithful when we are not. He gives grace when we least deserve it. He is generous when we have nothing to offer in return. He is our God and He loves us and is eager to bless us. May that compel us to a life of obedience for His glory!

-holly

Discerning God's Call

After David suggested on Sunday that we each ask God if He wants us to support local disciple making by moving to East Lake/Gate City, I began to do that on Monday. As I talked with God about this I had to first get past my fears and doubts. After sharing those with Him, I then put them aside the best I could, reminding myself that in the past when God has called me to a mission or ministry He has given me the peace and joy to go with the calling. So I ask the question, “How do I know if You are calling me to this?” “What can I do discern You will?” I then seem to hear: “Those I send, I’ve already prepared. Look at My servant Moses.” God prepared Moses before He called him by raising him in pharaoh’s court. As a child he played in the palace. He experienced the humanity of pharaoh and knew he was only a man; not a god nor divine in any way; a man with great power but still only a man. Moses also had a love for his people. He had maintained his relationship with his people, God’s people, even though he was living in pharaoh’s household. He killed an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. He tried to convince two Israelites not fight with each other. God prepare Moses for the times the Israelites would gripe and complain and turn against him by putting a love for them in his heart. There are probably other preparations that God made in Moses that I’m not aware of but He prepared him long before He called him.


Monday night I again came to God with my question. “How do I know if You are calling me to this?” The next response I seem to hear was: “To those I call I give the vision. Look at My servant Moses.” When God called Moses He didn’t say, “I want you to leave your flocks, your home, your family and go to Egypt.” What He said was, “I’ve heard My people’s cry and I want you to go and get them and bring them to Me.” God doesn’t send someone to a place; He sends them to a vision. So going is not about going to a place but about seeing God’s vision for His people in that place.

By not means do I think I have the final answer yet. But I believe God has given me guidance for my discerning of His will so I thought I’d share that with you.

What is my Egypt?

In Numbers the Israelites stand at the edge of the Promised Land. The land God has promised to them for generations, the fulfillment of a promise made to their patriarch Abraham. To get them to this point God has done nothing short of astonishing miracle after astonishing miracle. He has made His presence known to them in a cloud and in fire. They can see His presence with their own eyes. So they stand, an army ready to enter the land...and they lose their faith. They get scared. They forget God's grace and His faithfulness. They even cry out that they want to go back to Egypt, the land of their slavery.

So what is my Egypt? What do I choose over God's promises? What looks safe and secure but is nothing but shackles and chains? When I take my eyes off God and start to panic, what do I turn to even though God has freed me from it? Is it my house? Maybe my job or the paycheck that comes with it? Is it feeling safe in my gated community or knowing my child is getting a great education in an adorable school that looks like a castle? A lot of the times it's the dreams, the vision I have of a "nice life" with summers spent at the pool, fall spent at football games, and life spent enjoying one event after another. These are Egypt to me. At one point they make me feel safe and secure and then I look again and realize they may be the very things that enslave me. The very things that I cling to instead of clinging tightly to my God. The very things that make me swallow hard when I think of giving them up.

But wouldn't I give it all up...every bit of it to see God's glory in my life? The house, the job, the dream are worthless without Him. They are fading, corroding, disintegrating right in front of my eyes. Only His glory is forever.

God, please please show me how to live this short day in light of an eternal tomorrow. I want my life to count. Don't let me waste it. You are worth it.

-holly