Day 37 of 365...
Exodus 22-24
Key Passages/Thoughts:
Ex 23:20-26 - "'I am going to send an Angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to Him and listen to His voice. Do not defy Him, because He will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for My name is in Him. But if you will carefully obey Him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. For My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. You must not bow down to their gods or worship them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. I will take away your illnesses. No woman will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you the full number of your days.'"
Here we have some important promises from God to the Israelites, but they come with some stipulations. You would think that after all they had been through, all the things they saw God do, the Israelites would be able to follow a few commands in order to receive the "reward," so to speak. Talk about a payoff, though! God promised to be enemy to their enemies, a foe to their foes, He will defeat all their enemies. Now, I realize that this was a promise made to a particular group of people (and I'm not in that particular group of people), but the core of the message is something that can still be applied today. God keeps His Word, and there is no argument about that.
Let's put some application to it.... When I am in God's Word and seeking to hear from Him on a daily basis, He begins to speak to me through Scripture. That means, whatever He says to me through Scripture is something that I can fully rely on. The key point in the process is that it is God's voice that I am listening to. God's voice will always align with His Scripture, so there is no confusion. Once I have discerned that it is God speaking to me, I can trust what He says. He doesn't always make promises to me, but He does tend to give me some guidelines I need to follow. To me, it's like following a treasure map. I have to follow the clues to get to the treasure. In my mind, the clues are the things (rules) that God has asked me to be faithful in following. When I am faithful with those things, God gives me the payoff, the treasure. Most of the time, it's a deeper and closer relationship with Him. Other times, it's a thorn that is finally removed from my flesh. The key to it all, though, is to be faithful in following the "clues," because, if I move my focus to the prize, it will never be found. In my opinion, the real treasure is in the process, because that's where my relationship with God is refined.
God grant me the wisdom to discern Your voice above all the noise. Help me to follow the tasks You've set before me. Keep me focused on the process and not the prize.
Ex 23:20-26 - "'I am going to send an Angel before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to Him and listen to His voice. Do not defy Him, because He will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for My name is in Him. But if you will carefully obey Him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. For My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. You must not bow down to their gods or worship them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them and smash their sacred pillars to pieces. Worship the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. I will take away your illnesses. No woman will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you the full number of your days.'"
Here we have some important promises from God to the Israelites, but they come with some stipulations. You would think that after all they had been through, all the things they saw God do, the Israelites would be able to follow a few commands in order to receive the "reward," so to speak. Talk about a payoff, though! God promised to be enemy to their enemies, a foe to their foes, He will defeat all their enemies. Now, I realize that this was a promise made to a particular group of people (and I'm not in that particular group of people), but the core of the message is something that can still be applied today. God keeps His Word, and there is no argument about that.
Let's put some application to it.... When I am in God's Word and seeking to hear from Him on a daily basis, He begins to speak to me through Scripture. That means, whatever He says to me through Scripture is something that I can fully rely on. The key point in the process is that it is God's voice that I am listening to. God's voice will always align with His Scripture, so there is no confusion. Once I have discerned that it is God speaking to me, I can trust what He says. He doesn't always make promises to me, but He does tend to give me some guidelines I need to follow. To me, it's like following a treasure map. I have to follow the clues to get to the treasure. In my mind, the clues are the things (rules) that God has asked me to be faithful in following. When I am faithful with those things, God gives me the payoff, the treasure. Most of the time, it's a deeper and closer relationship with Him. Other times, it's a thorn that is finally removed from my flesh. The key to it all, though, is to be faithful in following the "clues," because, if I move my focus to the prize, it will never be found. In my opinion, the real treasure is in the process, because that's where my relationship with God is refined.
God grant me the wisdom to discern Your voice above all the noise. Help me to follow the tasks You've set before me. Keep me focused on the process and not the prize.
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