It is almost frustrating to read and see how stubborn Pharaoh is. But the sad truth here today is that we are all that way at times. No matter how close your walk or how far away your walk is with God, we all fall short. We simply want to control our own lives at times.
Instead of stating the things I get wrong when it comes to my walk, I am going to talk about a few things I am finally getting right. Not perfect. Not all of the time. Time with him has changed these parts of my life over the years.
Prayer - In the past 48 hours I have prayed with 3 people at my school. In my school. I was able to pray with a dear friend whose mother is elderly and in the hospital. I was able to pray with a colleague about a meeting we have this morning that will involve parents who are afraid because their child has some special issues. I was able to pray with a sweet teacher friend about one of her students parents who was in a horrific car crash and is in ICU. Like I mentioned yesterday, I used to promise to pray. Now I pray right then and there. Doing this acknowledges that God's power is real. Prayer is important and must be done right then. We cannot put off God and his healing powers. We must access it multiple times daily.
Forgiveness - Oh, I used to love to hold a grudge. It gave me power. It allowed me to have a leg up on the situation. It gave me "control". In all reality it made me pretty miserable. Holding on to anger, hate, disappointment, hurt feelings and entitlement was really just me making myself more miserable. When you break those chains it is so liberating. When I forgive the person and give it to God, he gets all of the power and the glory. I have realized in maturing in my faith that I don't have to forget what that person has done but I do have to forgive them to free myself. I used to wonder how people could forgive someone who murdered a loved one. I get it now. We cannot be in bondage but someone else's mistake. We have to be forgiving to access his mercy and grace for us. Our hearts cannot be hardened.
Faithfulness - It seems like every time I get really close to God, in his word daily, in prayer daily...the devil gets busy, He is all in my finances, messing up stuff at work, nudging me to be not so nice with people I love...Well, lately I have just stopped giving him that power. I think that many times we want to blame Satan but in all reality it is either A. I haven't been doing like I should. Living in his word. Walking closely to him. Listening to him. or B. I give the power to Satan instead of saying Lord, I know I am going through this storm right now and I am going to praise you for the good and the bad and give you the glory on the other side. We know that God uses difficulties in our lives to bring us closer to him. I have stopped giving Satan the power for my trials but instead trying to put all of my trust in God and his true powers.
I hope this speaks to someone today. As a new christian I felt that I had to be perfect and get it all right. It is kind of like starting a diet. I would start, get discouraged and then just give up. I would feel like I wasn't getting God right and I would just stop reading my bible, stop praying, stop going to church...I bet God was saying the same thing I thought about Pharaoh. "Come on Mandey, let your doubt, selfish desires, and stubbornness go already. Geez. Don't you see that I am going to keep on until I get what I desire?"
No matter what you are facing in life, don't give up on God. There is a purpose there. A future testimony. A reason for the season you are in.
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