Good morning gang! Thanks for your ongoing participation and comments!
Exodus chapter 17.
In this chapter Moses and the people face three obstacles.
1. No Water which God met that need.
2. The Amalekites attacked them. God delivered the enemy into their hands.
3. Moses's arms got tired holding up the staff of God. But two men helped keep it up so that the Amalekites were defeated.
Obstacles are natural everyday occurrences. Expect them. Don't be shocked and don't be surprised by them. The question is what will we do when they come? Will we complain, Quarrel about it, or test and question God? A suggestion for handling obstacles:
1. PRAYER. Take it immediately to the Lord in prayer. Continue to pray till you see God's response.
2. TRUST GOD. You may not get the response you want but trust God to answer in some way that will bring Glory to his name.
3. LEND A HAND. Some obstacles God requires the body of Christ to come together on. Be willing to help serve and meet a need.
As for me, I got news that the DEP is now requiring our sewer plant to go from once a week testing which equals $350 a month to 7 days a week testing which will equal a huge increase in expenses. My thought process says this is ridiculous. It's an overkill for our small camp and can be a detriment to us financially. I decided to put this in prayer and trust God. What has God done?
A friend of our was able to convince the DEP to let us have 3 days a week of testing, while the gentleman who does our testing said if we put in 3 machines we could have it automatically done so that the tester does not need to come in only once a week. To accomplish that would cost $11,000. But through contacts we were able to get the cost down to $4500.00. We asked for donations and were able to raise $4500.00 exactly.
If I only had that faith more often!
Awesome, Pastor Blair! The power of prayer is really underscored to me in today’s reading. Also, the need to cultivate one or more people from the body of Christ – to be our Aaron and Hur, to help lift up our hands in prayer. The battle with the Amalekites (Easu’s warlike descendants) wasn’t won with the sword but with Moses’ intercession in prayer. Prayer changes us! It opens the door to enjoy Jesus presence in our hearts.
The Lord also showed me in today’s reading what a difficult congregation Moses had to pastor. They may have been still learning but they took every single problem to the pastor rather than the Lord. Let us take these lessons to heart and encourage and pray for our pastors and church leaders.
Thanks Pastor Blair for sharing those three suggestions for handling obstacles and for the update about that situation with the sewer testing.
I was thinking about Jesus and the encounter that He had with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 as I read Exodus:17 today. I thought more about how Jesus is completely human and yet completely God at the same time as He had the human thirst and need for water and yet He is the living water. I also thought about how Jesus created all things including the tree that was one day used as a cross for Him to die on and how Jesus also reached a point of such human weakness just like Moses in holding up his hands where Jesus was helped by Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. I don’t always like to ask for help, but I realize that God wants us to lend a hand and there are times that I need to accept help from others. We need each other. There are lots of places about that in the Bible such as Ecclesiastes 4:9, Proverbs 27:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:11 and James 5:16.
Matthew 28:6
6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
That is awesome about the donations PB,
I got 2 big points out of this chapter,
One,water from a rock, and
2, the attack of the Amalekites Easu’s descendants (that’s right Jeanine.)
Was this the first battle of the Israelites? Did they ever fight when they were slaves for Egypt?
That’s an awesome answer to prayer! A great reminder today of how important it is to work together as the body of Christ! We need to be willing to help others as well as being willing to accept the help offered.
Love your story, Blair! Thank you for sharing. The Lord has answered so many of my prayers lately! He is truly making a way for more and the different kind of life he wants me to live.
This chapter reminds me that habits are hard to break. The Israelites are in the habit of complaining whenever they have a need. Instead of praying to the Lord, they grumble at Moses. I know personally I struggle with complaining before praying and grumbling before giving it to the Lord! I am also reminded of other habits that are not healthy with my relationship with the Lord and my family that are difficult for me to break. One I’m struggling with lately and for some time now is spending too much precious time on social media. Rather than going straight to the work or just watching my sweet son play, I get right on Facebook. God has put it on my heart to stop, yet I, like the Israelites, want to keep a part of it (bread over night). Keeping a small amount usually turns into a bigger amount, sucking away so much time! And just like in our previous reading the Israelites wake up to rotten bread with maggots, I am left feeling groggy, depressed, and disconnected after too much time on social media.
What’s amazing me is how easily I am applying these lessons from 1,000’s of years ago to my own current life. I pray I can start applying it fully.