Friday, January 28, 2011

Expectations

Day 5 of the 90 Day Bible Read-Thru Challenge, and I'm loving the huge overview of scripture we're getting! I also love "hearing" God's voice as he communicates with people in the OT...his sarcasm, his sense of humor, his gentleness...oh, and his anger, too.

Exodus 3
God tells Moses he's going to talk to Pharoah and convince him to let the Israelites go free. Moses balks and says there's no way he could talk to Pharoah like that and speak for God. God promises Moses that he's going to help him "perform all kinds of miracles and cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go!" (3:12)

Doesn't that sound lovely?! You'll be a superstar in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they'll actually give you gifts as you leave! I don't think God intentionally misled Moses with his words, do you? It was all true, God just didn't go into detail about how it was all going to happen...how Pharoah wouldn't listen, how the Israelites would even resent Moses' attempts at freeing them, and how the Egyptians would give Moses their belongings, desperate for Moses to leave town!

I don't think it's part of God's character to manipulate us with false promises to get us to do things....but 1 thing I know about my life is that if I had really known some of the struggles God was going to lead me through, I might not have even started the journey!

This week Sophia witnessed me treating/bandaging a wound on Todd's back, and said "I don't think I want to be married if that's what you have to do!" It was nasty. I was feeling a little squeamish about it myself. But that's what you do when you're married and you love someone. I'm guessing the tasks will only get worse as we grow older, right?!

But when we're dating, how ooey-gooey romantic would it be if we really thought through having to one day clip their toe nails or feed them or change their diapers? Not very motivating..... What if you knew ahead of time that your spouse was going to suffer from depression or get laid off from their job or battle debilitating disease?

Would we follow the Lord into ministry if we knew how discouraging support-raising would sometimes be or how exhausting people can be or the times we'd be rejected by friends and family or how lonely it could be on the mission field?

God is so smart. And so He gives us information on a "need to know" basis. It's like he told Moses, "Here's what you need to know: I'm gonna do some big stuff thru you! I'm gonna perform miracles and the Egyptians are gonna sit up and take notice! But it's all gonna be through my power....you just come along for the ride! The rest of the story? Well, we'll deal with it as it comes..."

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