"When It All Goes South" January 21 Readings: Exodus 5-8

Today's Reading - Exodus 5-8

Background

When  you do the right thing and serve God, everything will work out fine, right?

If you believe that you haven't read today's reading. Moses finally gave in and went to Egypt in obedience to God, confronting Pharoah - that's when Murphy's Law took over. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Pharaoh did not accept Moses' terms and heaped a greater burden on Israel. Now they had to make their full quota of bricks, but gather their own straw. They turned on Moses pretty fast.

Moses showed the secret to success - he just kept going. He went back to Pharaoh again and again. The plagues began and Pharoah yielded then changed his mind again and again. Moses was dogged in his obedience until God finally fulfilled his promise.

Devotional - When It All Goes South

What we do when things don't work out makes all the difference in the world.

In Exodus 7, Moses demonstrated the secret to significance in the Kingdom of God. He had been sent down to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrew people. And that is exactly what he did. He marched into Pharaoh's presence and delivered the message of God.

But things did not work out as Moses had expected. Pharaoh did not yield to God's authority and issue an immediate release to the Israelites. No, he was infuriated by Moses' hubris and issued a decree to make the Hebrews work harder than it had been.

Moses was quickly the most hated man in Goshen.

But what he did next made all the difference. He persevered. He continued to obey God even when it was hard. God had called him to free Israel and he would not give up on God's purposes. He was discouraged, frustrated and angry - mostly at God. But he turned to God and received encouragement.

Perseverance is the key to Kingdom success. We seem to believe that the Christian life ought to be easy and simple, that no opposition or difficulty should arise. Nothing could be further from the biblical truth. God's work is always hard. It is always opposed. It is always perilous. But the man or woman of God who wishes to do great things in God's kingdom must continue in spite of the hardships.

Moses went to Pharaoh with this promise from God.

Now you are going to see what I will do to Pharaoh: he will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of his land because of My strong hand. Exodus 6:1

Today, the work of God goes forward. It is going to be hard and you can count on the opposition of Satan and the sinful world. They will not give up ground easily. But God is still  on the throne and has promised to those endeavoring to obey the great task he has given us, "I will be with you always." The only hope of success in a task as big as ours is that we would persevere through every hardship and struggle until God's displays his power.

Lord, may we persevere through every hardship and trial, as Moses did, until you accomplish your work in us and display your power to us. 

Think and Pray

Do you have the false idea that serving God should be a guarantee that everything will go well in your life?
Do you get discouraged and give up when hard times come?
Remember that a) resistance and hard times are part of serving God and that b) persistence and perseverance and the keys to success in serving God.