Today's Devotional

January 25, 2005

Subject:  He Said "Go" Not "Stay"

Exodus 3:16 - 17 "Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

"I hide me, far away from trouble.  The world outside me, grows darker by the day.  So I promise to stay right here beside you.  Surely God would want His children safe.  Then in our reading how our eyes were opened.  We find out He is calling us, out into the world.  Into the middle of fallen saints and sinners, where a little grace is needed more."  - Avalon 

These were the words from a music group called Avalon describing the way Christians often view life.  Does God really want any harm to come to His children?  Would He put us in circumstances that might cause us physical harm?  Emotional harm?  Spiritual harm?

When God told Moses to gather the elders of Israel, it was a challenging situation.  It required Moses not only to act on faith, but he had to go out into the world, Egypt.  In the course of events there were many challenges and much physical hardship.  Through it all, they had to rely on God's care and He provided.  They had to trust that what God said was true.  God had told them that He would then bring them into great wealth in another land.  

This is the case for us today.  God has not placed us here to be stagnant and inactive.  He put is in the world among "fallen saints and sinners" to bring them out of spiritual Egypt.  There will be hardship and we must trust in God's providential care.  The key for success on the journey is not to remain in our "safe" situations, but to heed the word of God and when He says "go," go. 

Carlen