Today you should read: Exodus 5
“What is God thinking? This isn’t how it is supposed to be.”
Have you ever thought that before? Have you ever been in a situation in life and you felt like you had sought the Lord and felt confident you were following His leading and then “Wham”, you are hit right between the eyes with something you never would have thought was coming. I know I have and many of us reading this have. For most of us our reaction would be similar to Moses and Aaron in this passage, “O’ Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?” God had promised Moses that He would be with him and use him to rescue the people of Israel. So Moses, already scared and hesitant to follow God, brings Aaron with him and confronts the Pharaoh and asks for the people of Israel to be given 3 days to go and hold a festival in the desert for God. Now Moses has kept his end of the deal so far and has done what God asked him to do.
So theoretically, Pharaoh’s response should have been “Okay, sure. Have a good time. See you in 3 days” right? But instead he gets angry and forces more had labor onto the Israelites, making them get their own straw for bricks. Why didn’t God come through on his end of the deal? Where was God when Moses confronted Pharaoh? Romans chapter 9 gives us a very interesting perspective on this matter. In verse 17, which is actually taken from Exodus 9:16, God reveals his plan behind all this to us. He explains that He has raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of showing His power and for proclaiming His name to all the world. You see, we, like Moses, often times have this idea that if we just say yes to God and follow Him then everything will work out exactly like we plan and be very easy for us. Our problem, like Moses in this passage, is a problem of perspective.
When we realize that it is about God displaying His power and proclaiming His name, then we can better understand why things don’t always work out to plan. When our perspective stops with us then we question God when it our plan falls apart. So where is your perspective? What is your life about? Is it about God? Is it about His power being proclaimed in our lives and the situations we find ourselves in each day? Or is about our own convenience and comfort? Is it about God’s name being made famous in all the world? Or is it about our name and our kingdom? So today let’s start by adjusting the lenses of our perspective.
Posted by: Robbie Byrd
JumpstartCPC.com 
This reminds me of something I heard in a Bible Study years ago. When God says “no”…..a better “yes” awaits! How true! Does that mean it is immediate? Absolutely not! It can be days, months, years, or even decades. We are a people who want results now! In our suffering and trials that desire is only intensified. God knows the “big picture”…..HE knows how his name will be spread famously! I am reminded of something I read this morning in I Peter 1:6-8, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” Ephesians 4:7.
Awesome thoughts today Robbie!
I went back and re-read Exodus 3 — when God first introduces himself to Moses in the burning bush — and realized a second issue: Selective Listening.
As a wife, I sometimes complain that I’ve told Tim something and he wasn’t listening. . . well, in Exodus 3:19-20, God TELLS Moses that, after asking Pharaoh the first time, “. . . I [God] know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.” Either Moses forgot this part in all the excitement of going back to Egypt or didn’t convey this part of his conversation with God to the people. . . however it happened, God TOLD them it wouldn’t happen immediately. They just didn’t listen.
Praying for listening ears and a patient heart today — Happy Saturday CPC!
Today’s Missions Prayer Request:
Compassion International – Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty.
Website: http://www.compassion.com