Day 40 - Fear Of The Dark

Hey folks. Part 2 of my Jesus bits for Sunday. Connect this morning was good and I hope everyone got something out of it. Impact tonight should be quality :) Onto business then,

Today’s readings

Exodus 4:1-6:12
Matthew 26:31-46
Proverbs 4:10-19


So we have Moses getting his last instructions and how many excuses does he come up with despite God revealing all of his power to Moses? It must be scary to get called in such a direct way but you'd think the one thing you could rely on in that situation would be that you'd go for it full pace! Obviously there's a message here for us about believing in our potential and not second guessing God's plans. I also think that there is a nice reassurance here over our free will. A lot of times we think of God acting and people having no choice because He is so powerful but God will always let us deem whether or not we do what He asks us, no matter how direct. Now this obviously required a more drastic intervention to get Moses' attention but in our lives when we're waiting for that word from God we also have to have the courage and conviction to go for it and not just think that because God's planned it then it'll happen regardless.

There's an odd bit surrounding willies that we'll skirt over quickly. Basically Moses would have been raised an Egyptian so wouldn't have been circumcised and I think the writer here was keen to show that Moses was a part of God's people rather than show God being tricked or being unreasonably angry! We're back to remembering our key truths when we get to a tricky bit.

Moses and Aaron, and I think it's fantastic that God not only works with Moses' gifts but also makes him feel more confident about the things he might not be so gifted in, then go to Pharoah and basically make life a whole lot harder for the people they are trying to help. Sometimes our best intentions and even us following God's will doesn't give us the answer that we thought we'd get or the outcome we want. The world has been given free will by God and people will always get in the way of His will. But God knows this and will work round it. All He requires from us is the patience to see it through. Remember, we've already won in the long run, it's just the getting there that takes a slog. There's a lot of foreshadowing of the rest of Exodus here as the Israelites are often quick to give up hope and turst when faced with hardship. But we need to remember to not give up. God knows that some people require a lot of convincing and breaking down and He keeps sending Moses and Aaron back even when it appears hopeless to everyone else.

Into the New Testament we pounce and Jesus is basically saying His goodbyes to His disciples. I think there's some really interesting parallels here with how Jesus, Moses, the disciples and the Israelites react to bad news. Jesus is much like Moses in that He doesn't want to suffer as much as He knows He will and is pleading with God like Moses did. It's nice to know that being scared and having that longing for an easier life don't make us bad or evil people. But whereas Moses required God to keep prodding him and instructing him, Jesus knows what He must do and after laying His fears and concerns with God, gets on with it. The disciples are much more hopeful than the Israelites were and don't believe Jesus that they will falter when everything goes wrong. Initially they do and they lose hope, bar themselves up in their house and it takes another direct intervention from God to get them off their bums again. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think it's important to realise from this that it's ok to be scared about doing God's work. It's normal not to want to suffer and to not want to be seperated from God. But we have to remember that it is the closeness with God that will carry us through the rubbish times.

I think it's interesting too how Peter, James and John are taken to wait for Jesus. Here you have the guy who is convinced his love for Jesus will never falter and the two brothers who were trying to bargain their way into being Jesus' right hand men in Heaven. And even though they're full of zeal, they still fall asleep. Now Jesus would have been gone a long time but it's still somewhat amazing that these three grown men, who were used to fishing through the night, just fell asleep when they had been told that their best friend would be getting taken from them that night. You'd think that would make them more vigilant! But look what Jesus' reaction is. Initially He wakes them but then He lets them sleep till He's ready to go. Jesus wants us to be the best we can and to reflect His glory but if we're stubborn and choose to go our own way then He'll let us do that too, regardless of what amazing time with Him we might be missing out on.

Finally we have Proverbs and Solomon is still telling us the benefits of wisdom. They must be quite big if he's got so much to say about them! But his main point is clear, if you seek God's wisdom and follow His advice then your path will be lit up. Does that mean it's clear of danger? No but it means it's less scary and more easy to avoid.

So today we've been reading how it's scary to step out for God. This can apply to any part of your life. Whether you're at school, uni or work; it's never easy to do what God wants us to do. And we don't have to. There is that choice and God would never take that away from us. But look what we'd be missing out on! It'd be worse than the end of Bullseye... You lose that closeness, that potential for rescue or a light to your path. The security and love that knowing God really provides!

And that's your lot for today. I've had a nap in the middle of this so sorry if it's gibberish... Yesterday's song is here. Hope you've all had a great weekend. Questions, criticisms and comments welcome as always

Jon