Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.Isaiah 30:18
Most of us don’t like waiting, especially for the good things we desire. But we’ll do it when we believe the outcome is worth waiting for.
Our opening scripture reveals that God also waits. What does He wait for? To be gracious.
Let that thought sink in, beloved. The Lord waits to be gracious to you. He longs to pour out His favor and show you mercy. He simply waits for the opportunity.
So what provides that opportunity? What is our God of grace waiting for? He reveals it in verse 15.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
God waits for His people to return to Him. He waits for us to stop trying to handle everything ourselves and to rest in His strength.
But He also reveals our problem at the end of that verse.
But you were unwilling.
It’s really an amazing picture when you think about it. God—our Creator—mighty, yet full of mercy, longs to empower His people with the blessings of His grace. But we are unwilling to return. So He allows us the free will to choose to deny Him.
And His heart breaks as He watches us stumble in our pain.
Returning and rest release salvation, beloved. You may be wondering why those two elements are important to God. It really goes back to the whole reason He made man in the first place.
He didn’t create us to be slaves or puppets to serve Him. He didn’t need us. He desired to create living beings into whom He could pour His love. He made us for relationship.
He created us to enjoy Him, and so He could enjoy us. He made us to share life with Him, allowing us the privilege of drawing on all that He is.
But it only works when we come close.
Jesus revealed the desire of God’s heart in His passionate prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”John 17:24
Do you see it, dear one? Jesus is after one thing. Togetherness.
He wants us with Him. And He waits for us to return, so that once we are with Him, He may be gracious to us, as He’s always desired to be.
Amazing.
We’ve let the deceiver convince us that God is after so many other things. Our service. Our sacrifice. Our money.
He really just wants us with Him.
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
Don’t miss the significance of verse 10, dear one. The promise of salvation isn’t just about living with Him in heaven after we die. It’s offered here, while we live and have not yet fallen asleep.
Let’s give God the desire of His heart, beloved. Let’s live with Him.
Let’s return to Him with our whole hearts and allow Him the great joy of being gracious to us. Nothing gives Him more pleasure.
You’ll discover the same is true for you.
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/shutterstock_317807819.jpg7111000Kelley Lattahttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKelley Latta2016-07-06 06:00:542016-07-06 06:00:54Where is God? He’s Waiting.
Following Jesus isn’t getting any easier, is it? While God’s plumb line for distinguishing right and wrong has remained eternally the same, the world’s keeps changing. Things that our grandparents would have considered appalling have become commonplace. Acceptable. The lines have blurred, and so have our convictions.
Dear one, allowing anything other than God’s truth to shape our thinking leads to trouble. Sadly, tasting the sweet enticements of this world eventually results in death.
Kelly Minter witnessed this lesson experienced the hard way.
Lessons From a Lizard
Last week I was out for one of my neighborhood runs on an exceptionally hot and humid day in Nashville. Stifling is the word that comes to mind. I was about 20 minutes into my route when I noticed the oddest thing on the sidewalk . . . a lizard of some sort . . .about 9 inches long . . .
The really bizarre thing . . . is that its head was stuck in a Dr. Pepper can. I am not making this up. I have several theories, but my best one is that the glistening drops of sugary water lured this reptile in on a hot summer’s day. The poor little thing had worked so hard to wedge its head in there that it couldn’t get it out. It suffocated in the smothering heat.
. . . I couldn’t help but catch the symbolism. As I stood there staring at this peculiar sight, I thought of the many times I had discovered a few drops I thought were sure to offer life. They were sugary sweet and went down smoothly, offering a respite from the blaze of summer’s heat. . . In the end they left me more thirsty and desperate than before . . .
[Kelly Minter, No Other Gods, Lifeway Press, 2007, p.54-56]
Funny how some things are so easy to walk into but so impossible to back out of.
Have you ever found that to be true? At first something seemed so appealing, so right, so perfect. So you went after it. But once you got yourself in, you discovered a whole other side you hadn’t bargained for: the death side. The part that, had you known about it up front, would have stopped you from ever going in.
Beloved, God sees all of it, including the danger lurking just beyond the temptation. That’s precisely why He has established boundaries for us, not to keep us from experiencing the sweet, sugary taste of momentary refreshment, but to protect us from the suffocating death that accompanies it.
The enemy has been deceiving and tempting us out of God’s protection since the Garden of Eden. Perhaps it’s time we got wise to his schemes.
Look at God’s instructions to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17.
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Pretty straight forward, right? Eat anything you want, except this one thing that will bring you death. Simple enough.
Enter the serpent.
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”Genesis 3:1
God tells us one thing. The prince of this world suggests something else.
That’s where our enemy always begins, dear one, getting us to question God. He raises doubts about His motives, His goodness, His trustworthiness. Did God really say . . .
Sex is only for marriage
Wives should submit to their husbands
Drunkenness is sin
Then he makes us believe we’re forfeiting something by obeying God.
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Genesis 3:4-5
And here’s the really tricky part. The deceiver always offers some truth in his deceptions. Their eyes were opened (verse 7), and they did become like God in the sense that they would know both good and evil (verse 22). But what really hurt them—what devastated them— was what the enemy failed to reveal: the consequences of experiencing those things.
Had the serpent given full disclosure, I’m quite certain Adam and Eve would’ve made a different choice. But that’s not his way. No, our enemy reveals only what we’d perceive as benefit to entice us. The rest of the dark horror that follows he keeps hidden, relishing the moment we’ll discover it for ourselves.
Picture Adam and Eve experiencing a rush of emotions they had never known before. Shame. Fear. Guilt. Isolation. Blame.
Imagine their terror as each chilling feeling gripped them and they began to face the reality of what they’d done. Feel the awareness creeping over them that the relationship they’d known with their Creator was lost. Sadly, that wasn’t the end of their pain.
Seeds of sin that we allow the enemy to cultivate in us don’t just sprout immediate fruit. They continue to birth consequences long after they’ve been sown, even transcending generations.
As a mother of two boys, I’m especially stricken by the unimaginable grief that must have consumed Adam and Eve as they suffered the loss of their beloved son. I wonder if they held Abel’s lifeless body in their arms, staring in disbelief into the vacant face of the first dead man. Far worse must have been the knowledge that he was taken from them at the hand of their firstborn. In one terrible moment, jealousy and rage—two devastating results of their choice to sin—stole their two oldest boys from them forever.
Beloved, when you disregard God’s instruction, you may experience a momentary thrill. But what follows will devastate you and those you hold most dear. Sin’s consequences are not always immediate, but they will always come.
This is precisely why salvation comes through faith, dear one. We must decide whose voice we will trust to guide our steps. Will we follow the voice of Truth who always gives us full disclosure? Or will we trust the enticements of the world’s prince and allow him to deceive us into death?
I don’t know about you, dear one, but I choose Jesus.
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_87868234.jpg6671000Kelley Lattahttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKelley Latta2016-06-29 06:00:152016-06-29 06:00:15What is God Keeping You From?
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Psalm 143:8
The morning didn’t exactly go as planned.
It was supposed to be a nice walk in the woods at a local park catching up with a dear friend and former prayer partner. Great plan. Until she suggested I bring my dogs.
I knew they could use the exercise and would love the adventure. And I could picture our little Jack—only a year at the time— happily bounding along with his heart full of wonder on only his second time exploring a trail.
But I also knew having my little darlings along would greatly alter the dynamic of our time together. I wasn’t sure. She said bring them.
I brought them.
Excited is a bit too small a word to describe Jack’s mood.
All his lessons of heeling calmly at my left vanished as though they’d never happened. I guess his sidewalk experience didn’t translate in the woods. I found myself severely tempted to take him off the leash.
He repeatedly bounded ahead up the trail darting from one side to the next sniffing everything, often tying me and Jen up with crossed leashes. And there seemed to be some discrepancy between the dogs over who deserved the right to lead.
Let’s just say Jen and I didn’t set our pace.
We told ourselves they were just excited and would soon calm down and keep pace with us. It was a good thought.
Little did we know that half way around the loop the trail would narrow to single file, only intensifying their bids for first place. Up and down they pulled us, over fallen limbs and under leaning branches.
Through lots of laughter and panting breaths, we managed to share a bit with one another. But I can’t help thinking how much more enjoyable our time would have been without all the tugging and straining.
By the time we made it back to the car, the soft fur under their chins hung in soaked strings from their excessive panting. Exhaustion had so overtaken Annie that she missed out on one of her ultimate joys: feeling the wind on her face while riding with her head out the window. Apparently after all that exertion, it was too much effort to sit up and rest her head on the car door. Instead, she lay sprawled on the seat, panting heavily.
I had a mess to clean up when I got home.
We may chuckle at the silly antics of lesser creatures, but God’s been showing me that we humans are a lot like those dogs. We insist on striving and straining for more, always tugging at God, trying to pull Him in the direction we want to go.
And we want to get there fast!
But all our tugging only pulls us further away from Him. And we don’t get to enjoy the incomparable pleasure of just being with Him.
Funny, isn’t it, how instead of simply receiving and enjoying the blessings God gives us, we insist on striving, even in the midst of them. Rather than savoring each moment, we dart ahead to see what’s coming around the next corner.
No wonder God’s Word speaks so often of rest.
God isn’t holding back from us, dear one. He’s always giving. That’s His nature. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and He loves so deeply that He gives (John 3:16). He’s simply waiting for us to receive. Yet instead of resting in what God is giving, we tug and strain, trying to force our way into grace.
I’ll let Paul ask you the question God’s been asking me.
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?Galatians 3:2-4
Beloved, no amount of striving on our part will usher us into what faith alone can reach.
While I can know that truth in my head, I still often find myself compelled to want to do something to catch myself in the flow of His grace. Reason suggests: If I …, then God will …
Yet God’s Word shouts the simplicity of grace freely given, and beckons us to believe it.
You and I don’t need to keep striving after the things we’ve already been given, dear one. We need to rest in them. We need to believe God when He says that we have them and press in close. Exercising that faith ushers us into His abundant grace.
Oh, how I love Jesus.
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_0519-1-e1466592100627.jpg7341056Kelley Lattahttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKelley Latta2016-06-22 06:50:032016-06-22 06:50:03How You’re a Lot Like My Dogs
O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!Psalm 141:1-2
God continually calls His people to pray. In our opening scripture, David calls upon God to respond.
I love his candor with the God who loves him. Hasten to me!
I want to have that kind of faith when I approach His throne. Don’t you? David confidently asked God to come near, full of expectation that he would be heard. Then he asked Him to open His ear to his voice.
Why is that significant?
John 9:31 reveals an important truth.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
David confidently asked God to respond to him because he knew he had God’s ear. Do you, dear one?
If you’re not certain, we just read the qualifications describing one God listens to: anyone who worships God and does His will.
You and I want God to hear our prayers, beloved. More than that, we desperately need Him to—far more than we realize. But John 9:31 brings up an important point we often overlook.
God doesn’t listen to every prayer.
I know. Making a statement like that seems scandalous. It doesn’t sit well with our cozy view of grace. But God’s word remains true—all of it, not just portions of it. And scripture undeniably declares, God does not hear us all.
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.Isaiah 59:1-2
You’ll notice the problem is not that God can’t hear. But there are times when He chooses not to.
So why would God choose not to hear His own children? 2 Timothy 2:11-13 offers some insight.
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.
Beloved, if you and I live our lives denying Jesus, His word declares that He will also deny us.
Perhaps I’ve lost your attention because you feel those words don’t apply to you. But I’m not talking about denying that Jesus is the Son of God. I’m talking about the decisions we make every day that either deny or acknowledge Him.
Let’s be honest. Many of us cheerfully associate ourselves with Jesus’ name. But when He calls us to actually live our faith through obedience, we deny Him.
• When His Spirit prompts us to forgive, we deny Him by embracing bitterness.
• When He invites us to walk in holiness, we deny Him by choosing the ways of the world.
• When He calls us into His presence, we deny Him the time.
Then we wonder why He doesn’t seem to bless our prayers.
If we deny Him, He will also deny us.
Beloved, God will never empower disobedience and idolatry. We cannot expect Him to unleash heaven’s blessing upon us while our choices deny His leadership over us.
And that, dear one, is why David had God’s ear. Listen to God’s description of him.
“I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.” Acts 13:22
God’s ear tunes to the sounds of the godly. Let’s put it another way.
Do you want God to hear you, dear one? Listen to Him. Choose to live in agreement with His Word. Seek Him in the secret place to discern what He is speaking. And then follow where He leads—in every area of your life.
You and I can’t expect God to listen to us while we refuse to listen to Him. But when we seek to live according to His will, His promises abound.
But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.Psalm 4:3
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_222869542.jpg6651000Kelley Lattahttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKelley Latta2016-06-15 06:51:152016-06-15 06:51:15Does God Choose Not to Hear You?
“Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.” Exodus 14:16
When God appoints a person to a kingdom task, He provides them with the power to accomplish it. But what happens when we insist on passing off our purpose to someone else? Do we also pass on the power?
I only ask because God revealed something to me about our friend Moses I’d never noticed before. I wonder if you’ll see what God showed me.
When Moses asked how he would prove that it was really God who had sent him to deliver the Israelites, God responded with a question of His own.
The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” Exodus 4:2
In the moments that followed, God used that staff to reveal His miraculous power, and Moses’ staff became the staff of God (Exodus 4:20, Exodus 17:9).
Take note, dear one. God didn’t give him something new to prove His power. He anointed what Moses already possessed.
And when Moses finally submitted to return to Egypt with his brother by his side to speak for him, God gave him one final instruction.
“And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
… So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. Exodus 4:17, 20
Here’s where it gets really interesting.
When the time came to confront Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron did everything the LORD asked of them. God gave instructions to Aaron through Moses for each of the first three plagues.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood…’” Exodus 7:19
And all the water turned to blood.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. Exodus 8:5-6
Still Pharaoh would not relent.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” Exodus 8:16
But something changed when the time came to unleash the fourth plague.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh, as he goes out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people, and into your houses.”’” Exodus 8:20-21a
Did you catch it, dear one? God took Aaron out of the equation at the fourth plague.
The God who’d first called Moses at the burning bush challenged him to return to his original calling. He asked him to trust His power through him, without relying on someone else. As promised, God had made his mouth, and He would help Moses speak (Exodus 4:11-12).
When Moses complied, a great distinction occurred.
“But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.” And the Lord did so… Exodus 8:22-24a
Beloved, until that point, the Israelites experienced every plague God poured out through Aaron. When Moses finally trusted God completely and took his true position, blessing fell on the people of God. And they were spared from suffering with the Egyptians.
I wonder, dear one. What blessings might God’s people be missing because you and I allow doubt to keep us from trusting God fully in our purpose? What has God asked you to do that you’re relying on someone else to accomplish? What if the anointing God appointed for the task won’t manifest fully until you step by faith into the role God ordained as yours?
Don’t misunderstand. God had always intended for Aaron to go with Moses. How do I know? God had already sent Aaron on his way to meet Moses while he argued with God at the burning bush (Exodus 4:14). But it wasn’t Aaron’s job to confront Pharaoh. That was Moses’ task. God appointed Aaron to help Moses, and he would minister as a priest of God.
After that, Aaron still accompanied Moses to every meeting with Pharaoh, but Moses did the talking. And the staff of power that proved God was with them returned to Moses’ hand.
Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:23
Moses didn’t relinquish his staff again. And he shouldn’t have. After all, it belonged to him.
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_125830172.jpg6661000Kelley Lattahttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKelley Latta2016-06-08 06:00:262016-06-08 06:00:26The Staff of Power
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”Exodus 4:11 NIV
One of my sons struggled a bit with a few of God’s choices for him. The way he put it, “I got all the bad stuff from my parents.”
In 7th grade, he watched helplessly as his friends propelled past him several inches in height, shooting steadily upward in rapid growth spurts. He grew decidedly slower, evoking the fear that he’d end up small like his mom. He also got dad’s teeth—which came complete with braces—and then he discovered he has his mother’s eyes. Glasses loomed in his future.
It was tough being twelve.
At the time, these things he perceived as limitations obscured his view of anything else. He couldn’t see past them. They completely overshadowed any thought of his potential. He didn’t yet understand that every part of himself he views as weakness provides an opportunity for God to show His strength.
You and I tend to do the same thing. We get stuck on our limitations and often allow them to rob us of joy and blessings that wait just on the horizon. Even our friend Moses left some things on the table, and scripture records that he left a legacy like no other.
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face . . . For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Deuteronomy 34:10, 12
Let’s rejoin Moses in the desert and uncover what he may have missed.
Last week we took a front row seat to his encounter with God through a burning bush. Out of all the people on the face of the earth, God handpicked Moses to lead His people to their deliverance. What had Moses done to deserve such an honor? Absolutely nothing. God found him hiding in the desert, consumed by his past failure.
But God doesn’t call us based on our incredible strengths and abilities. He calls us according to His purpose. Moses hadn’t earned the position God held out to him. God simply offered Him a gift of grace. His responses to Moses’ protests prove that to be true.
God didn’t answer Moses’ doubt by building him up and encouraging his abilities. What Moses could or couldn’t do didn’t matter. God answered by promising Moses three things.
I will be with you. Exodus 3:12
I AM all that you need. Exodus 3:14
I will prove to the people that I am with you through miraculous signs. Exodus 4:1-9
Still, Moses remained unconvinced. Immediately upon experiencing a miraculous display of God’s power, Moses offered up his final retort.
Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10
Part of me wants to interrupt their conversation right here and ask Moses, “Are you serious?”
He had just seen God turn the staff he was holding into a snake. Then he watched his own hand turn leprous and restore itself again at God’s command. Yet he faced God and said, “I don’t think so. I don’t like the way I talk.”
Pay close attention to God’s response.
The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”Exodus 4:11-12
Essentially God said to Moses, “I made your mouth. I will help you speak.”
But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses . . . Exodus 4:13-14
Sometimes we need to be careful what we wish for.
Even after all of God’s promises and a grand display of miraculous power, Moses asked God to send someone else. In anger, God granted Moses’ request, but that still didn’t get Moses out of going.
“What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth . . .”Exodus 4:14-16
Don’t miss the cost of Moses’ stubbornness, dear one. Yes, God in His mercy provided Aaron to help Moses communicate with the people, but Moses forfeited a miracle God wanted to perform on his behalf. God didn’t plan to have another man speak for Moses “as if he were [his] mouth” (verse 16). God desired to reveal His power through Moses by making his mouth speak (verse 12)! God’s purpose still prevailed, but poor Moses argued himself right out of his blessing.
I wonder how many times you and I have talked ourselves out of a blessing God had waiting on the edge of a step of faith. How often have we wrestled against God’s purpose for our lives and refused to trust Him for His best?
Several years ago, through this very passage, God convicted me of my own doubt. I stood before my class one Sunday morning, teaching on these verses, and God’s presence washed over me as He whispered to my heart, “That’s you, dear one.” Tears stung my eyes and my throat tightened. Before I even had time to think about it, I closed my eyes before the women, lifted my face toward heaven, and answered Him. “God forgive me.”
You see, I have chosen to live my life for the glory of the Lord. And amazingly, He has used this life to bring about some small part of His plan for His church. But I often tended to act like Moses did when God invited him to participate. I allowed my view of myself and my limitations to overshadow my view of God. In those moments, God has still used me to bring about His will, but perhaps I’ve missed some of what God wanted to do for me in the process.
I don’t want to leave any more blessings on the table!
God has great things to do right now in our generation. Let’s commit together to believe big things of God. The God who made our mouths can cause them to speak with boldness. The God who made the seas still has power to make them part.
Our I AM is so much greater than our limitations. As we readily respond in faith, we will witness His great power.
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27
We serve a magnificent, all-powerful God. Nothing is too difficult for Him. Things that loom beyond our human realm of possibility become quite possible when the Almighty enters the scene.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t live as though that’s true. We tend to limit what we’ll expect from God, especially when it comes to our understanding of how God might want to use us. We often allow our abilities—or lack of them—to define our idea of what God desires to do through us. That misplaced focus can cause us to miss out on marvelous blessings.
Today we visit the desert with Moses to join him beside that famous burning bush. We have much to learn from his encounter with God, so come close. Feel the heat of the flames. But don’t worry, these won’t consume so you don’t need to fear getting burned (Exodus 3:2). You will, however, learn how to push past your own self-doubt and trust God to do something extraordinary through you.
Let’s first consider the scene. Moses has spent the last forty years tending sheep in the desert, a long way from Pharaoh’s palace where he’d been raised. A botched attempt to save an Israelite slave ended in murder and sent him fleeing Egypt for his life. Now suddenly, on an ordinary day while Moses performed an ordinary task, God showed up and told him it was time to finish what he’d started forty years before.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land… So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”Exodus 3:7-8, 10
Moses’ response to God was less than enthusiastic. Honestly, I’m pretty certain mine would have been as well. I mean, who really wants to return to the scene of their most tragic failure? And the last time Moses saw Pharaoh, he wanted to take his life.
Like Moses, you and I possess all sorts of reasons for not wanting to do what God asks of us. On the surface, some of them even appear to be very valid reasons. But I think you’ll find that if you bring them to the Lord and allow yourself to see them overshadowed by His greatness, their validity disappears.
How do you typically respond, dear one, when God calls you to move on His behalf? Do you charge ahead full of faith, or do you argue like Moses to see if God changes His mind?
I used to do quite a bit of arguing. I am full of faith in God’s ability, but I often doubt myself. Thankfully, God’s pretty good at winning battles.
Moses offered up four arguments against doing the thing God asked of Him. Today we’ll consider the first three and save his final argument for next week. As we look at each one, contemplate how God’s response to Moses applies to you.
Who am I? Moses’ first argument stemmed from self-doubt.
“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)
Essentially, Moses questioned God’s choice, “Are you sure you’ve got the right guy?” I can tell you I’ve spoken similar words to God myself, and God answers with the same words He spoke to Moses.
God’s Answer: “I will be with you.” Exodus 3:12
Who are You? Next Moses asks for a little clarification. God had already revealed who He was at the start of their conversation, and Moses hid his face in reverent response (verse 6). Still, upon hearing the task God appointed for him, Moses asks…
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”Exodus 3:13
We should note that God revealed His names in scripture as His people experienced that aspect of His character. It’s as if Moses is asking, “You said you’d go with me, but who are you going to be?” Would He be Deliverer? Comforter? Provider? God Almighty?
God’s Answer: “I AM WHO I AM” Exodus 3:14
By proclaiming Himself I AM, God declared, “I am everything you need.”
What if they don’t believe me? We can easily face a crisis of faith when we consider how others might view it. Wondering what others think can keep us from believing ourselves. I would bet every fisherman that abandoned his net to follow Jesus dealt with this one. Moses, it seems, faced that same doubt.
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Exodus 4:1
God’s Answer: Essentially, “I will show myself.” Exodus 4:2-9
God promised Moses that if he would trust Him by going to Egypt to rescue the people of Israel, God would make it known to the people that He was with him. He would provide evidence that He was present and that He did in fact send Moses to deliver them through miraculous signs.
Eventually, Moses chose to trust God and saw Him keep every promise. God showed up to perform marvelous works that brought great deliverance and altered the course of history. And that shepherd tending sheep in the desert became the leader of God’s chosen nation.
Beloved, what is God calling you to do that you have neglected to trust Him for?
Obedience invites God’s presence. And as you step out in faith with I AM, you can rest assured that God will eventually show Himself to doubting scoffers. If He has invited you to participate with Him in His plans, just like Moses you can believe that when the time is right, He will reveal Himself in the midst of it.
I’d like to leave you with one closing thought to chew on. When Moses voiced the reasons he couldn’t do what God had asked, not once did God encourage Moses by building him up. He didn’t offer the words, “You can do this.” Moses’ ability was a non-issue.
Last week I shared how God met me in my deepest pit and intervened when I tried to take my own life. He not only sent someone to break down my door, He showed up Himself to sing His love over me. I am still amazed by the thought.
You might think that at this point I surrendered my life to the Lord. Nope.
Instead I thought I deserved to be punished, not just for trying to take my own life, but for all the bad choices I had made, for all the times I had turned from God and went my own way. I was so ashamed! Surely God could not—would not—want me. Surely He could never forgive me. How could He love me after everything I had done?
And so I ran, right into the arms of an abusive man.
This man was not my husband. I chose to live in sin even though I knew in my heart it was wrong. When he hit me the first time, I knew I deserved it. I deserved every beating, every broken bone, every humiliation. I had been searching for love for so long, I was willing to accept any love I could get, even love that hurt.
I suffered beatings and torture every day, and I would think, maybe today he’ll kill me, because I knew I deserved that too. I died inside a little more with every beating, every humiliation, every broken bone. Each blow confirmed what I already knew in my heart of hearts: No one could ever really love me. No One would ever want me; I was too broken and too damaged.
Satan worked his magic through the fists and words of an abusive man, but God still had other plans for me. Even though I had turned from Him yet again, He continued to pursue me.
This time He sent me a precious gift, a life saving gift. He sent me a child.
I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant. I would love my child in all the ways I had not been loved. I would somehow make it all right. I just knew that this child would satisfy my thirsty soul.
Finally, my son was born. In my whole life I had never felt what I felt for this child! It was a love I could not understand. I loved him with everything that was in me. And I thought I had finally satisfied that longing, finally quenched my thirst.
But when I brought my son home from the hospital, I was still waist deep in my pit. I remained in a very dangerous, very abusive relationship with my son’s father. I was afraid for my life and for my son’s life, but I was too scared and too weak to do anything about it. And, I was still living in sin with a man who was not my husband. So I prayed that God would change my abuser so we could be a family. That’s one prayer I am thankful God answered with a no. Instead God began to change me.
First I had to learn to love myself, and I had to come to grips with who I really was and what was motivating the decisions I made. I learned that my need to feel loved had consumed me, and had so twisted my thinking that I was willing to allow a man to hit me and torture me, as long as he told me he loved me. And I learned that I needed to take ownership for my part in this relationship. You see, I allowed it to happen. I stayed. I covered up the bruises and broken bones and lied about them. I made excuses for his behavior. All because I believed I was unloved, believed I was not worthy, believed I deserved it.
Then God began to change the way I saw my abuser. Eventually I got to the point that I loathed the man I once loved, hating every minute I spent with him. I even cringed at the sound of his voice. I no longer saw him through the tainted view of desperate love. Instead I saw the reality of who he was. I believe God was working in me to prepare me to leave. He had to change my heart and my thinking about myself and about this man to give me the strength to go. He needed to get me to a place that when I came face to face with my Lord there would be no looking back, no going back!
During this time, my love for my son only grew. I took many beatings to protect him. I cried out to God to save him from my fate. And one day the revelation came: someday, this man would hit my son. I could not let that happen. I would do anything for this child, and he deserved a better life than this. I loved him so much I’d die to save him, and that’s when God changed my life forever. He spoke right into my heart, “Don’t you see? That’s how much I love you. I gave up MY son for you!”
I thought of John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son…
I realized that God so loved Juliet, He was willing to sacrifice His son for me! I could not understand how He could love me after what I had done. I had turned my back on Him so many times, and I chose to run the other way even when He met me as I lay dying.
But the sins of my past didn’t matter. That day God reminded me how much He loved me. He reminded me how He had sung over me as I tried to take my own life, reminded me that He had offered me the gift of grace through my son. And He reminded me that He would always love me, no matter how far away I ran, or how many times I turned my back on Him or how many bad choices I made. He showed me how He had pursued me and met me time and time again in my moments of greatest need.
No matter what I look like, or what I’ve done, He loves me as I am! He loved me first. And this time when my God met me in my circumstance, I turned to Him. I received what He was offering me, the water of life. I had no regrets, no thoughts of running. Just an overwhelming sense of relief, that all the searching and all the pain was finally over. And the void I had been trying to fill for so many years was finally filled.
My encounter with God saved my life in more ways than one. I finally found the strength to leave my abuser. And I found the love I had been searching for since the day He knit me together in my mother’s womb, in the arms of my heavenly Father.
Our God works in ways beyond our comprehension. He sees our whole life laid out before Him, and He knows what you and I thirst for. He knows what it will take to get us to turn to Him, and He knows precisely when we finally will. And so He has written it in the stars, for each and every one of us, a clandestine date when He meets us face to face in the midst of our pit to offer us the water of life.
You can be sure He will go out of His way to be there. The question is, will you receive what He is offering you? Or will you go away thirsty and continue your futile search to fill the emptiness inside?
Please know today that NOTHING in this world will quench your thirst. Nothing else will satisfy. Only Christ can give you what you are searching for. Only He can refresh your weary soul and breathe life back into your hopeless world.
And when you allow Him to do that you will be able to come full circle and step into what He has planned for you! I am excited to get to give back to victims of Domestic Violence. God has taken my mess and made it my message!
For the last 3 years we have been working alongside the staff of our local women’s shelter, partnering with them to provide help with rent, utilities, clothing & food—basically whatever is needed to help other victims survive. And now that we are officially a non-profit ministry, we are proud to announce our new outreach program.
Love LIVES: Living In Victory & Empowering Survivors
We aim to meet the needs of victims by providing financial, physical, emotional and spiritual support through our mentoring program.
In the coming weeks we will be sharing more information about our vision and how you can partner with us to make a difference in the lives of these families! In the meantime, would you join us in prayer for the many hurting victims in our communities? Those who are parched, thirsty and searching. Those who need to know the Love of God, so they will never thirst again!
https://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/shutterstock_151674215.jpg6641000KLM Teamhttps://kelleylattaministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/logo.pngKLM Team2016-05-18 06:30:232016-05-18 06:30:23A Thirsty Soul, Part 2
I have had the wonderful privilege of watching my dear friend, Juliet Sharrow, blossom under the loving hand of the God who pursues her. Today she shares a bit of her story. May you also discover the beauty of God’s intervening love.
My Thirsty Soul by Juliet Sharrow
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:13
I have been the woman at the well.
I’d wager you have too. We’ve all had times, whether we want to admit it or not, when we’ve felt like her . . . unworthy, like an outcast, wearing our shame and guilt like a scarlet letter. In those times we try to avoid people, carefully evading their judgment and “knowing glances”. Yet all the while we’re dying inside, our parched souls crying out for satisfaction but finding none.
My quest to satisfy my thirsty soul began at a young age. My Grandparents wanted my mother to have an abortion. I was an unplanned child to an 18-year-old unwed mother. And my young father was not ready for the responsibilities of a wife and child. From these beginnings came a little girl who felt unloved and rejected from as far back as she can remember.
I grew up without my father; I never even knew his name. I was raised by a wounded mother who was unable to love and a stepfather who was cold and abusive. The words “I love you” were never spoken in our home and hugs were rare. My stepfather only spoke to me when I did something wrong. I was not praised or told I did anything right, and I was never told I was beautiful, like every girl dreams of hearing from her daddy.
I was an only child, so everything that happened was somehow my fault. With no one else to blame, my stepfather took all his frustrations out on me. And my mother was too weak, too broken herself to protect me. I learned at an early age that love has to be earned and that love can be taken back at a moment’s notice. This left me hurting and searching. Searching for love anywhere I could get it.
And so began my unquenchable thirst.
My childhood environment taught me this: I was not good enough, was not accepted, and was not loved. I knew there must be something wrong with me that no one wanted me and no one loved me. I believed I was ugly and unlovable, that no one could EVER love me.
From a young age I went to church with anyone who would take me, mostly to get out of the house and away from my parents. And when I was old enough to understand about hell, I decided I didn’t want to go there, so I prayed the sinner’s prayer.
But I didn’t understand what accepting Jesus as my Savior really meant. Once again, I saw rules that had to be followed, and punishment for those that sinned. I thought God was waiting to punish me every time I did something wrong. I never felt love from God and I certainly never understood how to love Him back. He was too distant, and I was too afraid of failing Him along with everyone else. It never occurred to me that this God might be able to satisfy my thirst.
I thought if He really loved me He would have given me different parents, or He would have sent my real dad in to rescue me. Have you ever wished you could live someone else’s life? But my real father never came, and things at home only got worse. I just knew there was no way this perfect God could really love me. I was unlovable. And so my insatiable thirst only grew.
Nothing I did filled the void inside, nothing made me feel loved and accepted. I hated myself so much, and my relationship with my stepfather had gotten so bad, that as a teenager, every day I wished I was dead. I would sit on my bed and tell my mom how much I wanted to die. It consumed my thoughts. I saw myself as a failure and thought my life was not worth living, but I never got up the nerve to commit suicide.
Not until I was 21. By this time, my life had spiraled into such a deep pit, I saw no way out.
At first my spiral downward had been exciting, even intoxicating. I tried to satisfy my thirsty soul with all manner of evils, but the more I gave myself away, the thirstier I got, and I died a little more inside each day. I couldn’t live with the shame and guilt I was carrying around, couldn’t live with the horrible choices I had made. I could not live with myself.
I knew in my heart that no one would miss me. I believed I was doing everyone a favor, and this would finally make the pain go away. So I took a bunch of pills and went to sleep knowing it was finally over.
But God had other plans for me. He sent paramedics to break down my door and save me from myself. As I lay there in and out of consciousness, I heard singing! Just one voice, a man, so tender and sweet, singing, “I will always love you, I will always love you, I will always love you, yes I will!”
I experienced the blessing of Zephaniah 3:17 that day,
“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
God wasn’t so distant after all. In fact, I discovered He goes out of His way to meet us where we are. Just like Jesus went to Samaria to rescue a woman at a well, He pursues each one of us. And He came to me in my darkest hour. As I lay dying, He sang His love over me and carried me back to the land of the living.
I should have died that day. The doctors did not understand how I made it, but I did. A loving God had intersected my path to show me that I was worth loving. Unfortunately, I wasn’t yet ready to believe Him.
Visit us next week to read the rest of Juliet’s story!
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51
We spend a lot of time talking about the Bread of Life. But very few of us eat it. And we wonder at the absence of heaven’s life.
But life doesn’t come from hearing about the bread. Bread only nourishes when we partake of it.
“It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table.” ~A.W. Tozer
Taste the Bread, beloved. Don’t just nibble on it. Feast. Until you become the very Bread you consume.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.Romans 8:29
You and I are also supposed to become heaven’s bread. Jesus was meant to be the first bread of many loaves. Bread that multiplies as it is given away.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus’ miracles that fed hungry crowds both centered around bread?
You may recall that Jesus fed a crowd of over 5000 with a few loaves of bread and two fish.
When the disciples came to Jesus about the late hour and the people’s need for provisions, He responded with an impossible request.
“You give them something to eat.” Luke 9:13
I imagine you and I would have been as perplexed as they were.
They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”Luke 9:13
But Jesus didn’t want them to buy food for the people. He wanted them to feed the hungry with what they already had in their midst.
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said ablessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. Luke 9:16-17
Blessed. Broken. Given away. Multiplied.
Jesus was pointing them to the cross, dear one.
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Bread that is blessed, broken, and given away feeds and satisfies the hungry. Christ became the Bread to nourish our hungry souls. He invites us to follow His example.
Taste the Bread, beloved. Consume it so you may become Bread. Then let Jesus bless it and break it, so that you may also give Bread.
Life and glory flow out through the breaking. We are blessed before we are broken, but the breaking releases the blessing. Like Jesus, we must allow ourselves to be broken and given away. Only then will the Bread of Life multiply.
And then it returns to us.
The disciples gave the bread away, and each returned with an overflowing basket. Do you want your basket full, beloved? Give away your bread.
Blessed. Broken. Given away. Multiplied.
There may be pain in the breaking, dear one. Even anguish. Just look at the cross.
But I have chosen the broken path. I have seen Christ’s vision for His glorious church. Beautiful. Spotless. Without blemish. Alive with the glory of His might.
And I see hungry crowds in desperate need of Bread.
Jesus placed the very river of life that flows from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1-2) into our hearts through His breaking (John 7:38). I long to release that river. But it seems it will only flow out through the breaking of my heart.
So break it, Lord. Do what you must in me to set it flowing, to release your river of life from within me. Catch the wounded and broken in its flow; wash and heal them.
I trust you, Father. For with the breaking, there will be a mending. But I—and those you entrust to me—will be changed.
I would not have chosen this path for myself. The path of suffering—of watching those precious to me suffer.
But Jesus didn’t choose His path either. He surrendered to it.
