I was awakened early so I started spending time listening to the still small voice when the word “Spiritual Disobedience” dropped in my spirit. I remembered that just the other day; I was re-visiting the book of Exodus and had a fresh example in my mind which I will share today. Let it be an eye and heart opener.
Today’s Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, how do You love us? Let us count the ways — enough to bless us, to always be with us, to heal our wounds, to strengthen us, to give Your life for us! … How do we love You? Enough to praise You in all things, to be obedient, to serve You? Enough to commit our lives to You? … Oh Lord, help us to love You enough to never count the cost. … You didn’t. In your name we pray, Amen.
Let’s eat.
Disobedience Rooted in Fear
Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” – Exodus 16:19.
In my travels through this particular scripture I had some questions for myself that I will now ask of you. Have you ever seen God do something really good in your life only to find that you have abused the blessing He gave you? That was the case of the Israelites as they were traveling through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. God was providing for them in miraculous ways. Manna was provided each day as their bread. God gave Moses specific instructions as to how this manna was to be eaten. God said each one was to gather only what he needed for that day. No one was to keep it until the next morning.
“However, some of the people paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them” (Exodus 16:20).
God was teaching the Israelites daily trust in His provision for them. He wanted them to trust Him one day at a time. If they tried to hoard, God put a self-destruct feature in the manna. Yet God also told them to gather two days’ worth on the sixth day so that they would have manna to eat on the seventh day. Interestingly, this manna didn’t stink nor have maggots.
For many years I gathered manna in my business life out of fear of not having enough. One day, the Lord decided that my manna should be destroyed in order for me to learn total trust in His provision. He closed doors to consulting contracts which He had so richly blessed me with. I went 3 years with out work and needless to say, all the manna I had stored was gone but I was surviving one day at a time. He opened a window that provided small amounts of manna.
After that period God opened another door to a large contract and I worked it for 3 years and this time I did things differently with the manna but still I hadn’t been totally obedient to God and He closed the door again. You see, I was letting the words of people of this world seep into what I know to be true; God is my provider, and fear was creeping back into my life. It was just in the past few years that He opened those doors again but only after taking me through my personal desert experience to teach me dependence on Him only. When we operate out of fear, we can expect the Lord to lovingly discipline us in order to help us learn to trust Him. There is a danger when we seek to “insure ourselves” against tragedy. If your actions are born from fear, you can expect God to demonstrate His loving reprimand so that you might not live in fear.
Quote of the Day
Loyalty to things is addiction, loyalty to God is freedom. ~Glenn Sterrett~