Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Exodus 9:27-30
Exodus 9:27-30
It's wild to me that there were ten plagues. I will never understand how Pharaoh didn't throw in the towel somewhere around the frogs or the flies. Here, we're at the end of the hail, and it seems like Pharaoh is capitulating... but there are more plagues to go. Pharaoh has recognized his own sin, but he's going to change his mind about letting the people go. His mouth is speaking, but his heart isn't fully there yet. He still wants to be in charge.
We all know this dance. We have moments of clarity where we'll realize that God is God and that we are not. We see clearly our own sin and brokenness. We sometimes weep for opportunity lost. We come before God and we repent, but we often only do half-measures. Are our hearts truly broken and set before God? Or are we trying to control God, convincing God and ourselves that we're humble just to get what we want? We've all tried to walk that line.
Jesus shows us the beauty of a life lived fully committed to God. He shows us the peace available to us when we pour ourselves out to bring glory to God. Jesus offers this to us, day after day. God's mercies are new every morning. May we pray for wisdom to humbly follow God, and courage to pray hourly, depending on God for it all, seeking God throughout our lives.
Monday, March 3, 2025
Exodus 8:20-23
Exodus 8:20-23
If you're in Egypt, and you look at Goshen, where the Israelites live, and you see zero flies, and you are surrounded by them, what's your thought? How do you deal with that? One reaction is to hope that the flies make it to the Israelites. The other is to go and see out of curiosity, to assume that the God of the Israelites is demonstrating authority over all of nature, and to ask a lot of questions.
One takeaway from all of this is to live our lives in such a way that other people see something different. They see hope, and it shines like a light in a dreary world.
Another is that we should ask big questions. We're blessed to have the writings of Christians throughout the centuries that we can read to know how other people dealt with similar problems that we face. We can ask big questions of these Christians. We can also reach out to one another and ask how people deal with the things that we face. What's it like to live in the light? To be in a place unplagued by flies?
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