ULM

ULM

Friday, March 20, 2015

Unshackled Moments ~ March 20 ~ But God

The children of Israel had been slaves for 400 years. Moses gets a message from God promising freedom and a life worth living in a better land, the Land Of Promise. But when he tells Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, he is denied and ignored. God preforms awesome miracles and displays of power, to show that His people are indeed to be released. This is not a mere man's desire, but the Creator Himself wants to provide freedom for His people. But after each miracle, things actually seem worse for the children of Israel as Pharaoh retaliates.

Finally the slave master is broken, and those in bondage are free to go. But Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues to take back those whom he has lost to God. The people find themselves in an impossible situation. The water before them, an element of the world that they can not control or overcome. Behind them a massive army, their worst nightmare come true as their former master comes to take them back into bondage in a fury that promises to make things even more miserable and painful than before. There is no possible hope but God. But God.

God loves letting us and the rest of the world know that victory over our difficulties, freedom from our bondage, the defeat of our enemies was only possible because of Him. No, it's not an ego thing. It's an important message so that we don't forget where and to whom to turn, so that our lives tell the rest of the world where they too can find freedom. That sounds good, but in order for it to be clear that God did it, things have to get impossible enough that there is no hope but God.

If Moses quit declaring to Pharaoh the demand of God to set the captives free because things seemed to get worse, he would've missed the miracle, and the people would've stayed slaves. He himself would've been made a slave. If Moses and the children of Israel had turned their back to the sea and tried to wage war with the army of Pharaoh, they would've been slaughtered and or taken prisoner. They had no hope of winning on their own. And if they looked at the wall of water and refused to trust God, if they were too afraid to step out in faith and move through the sea because God made a path rather than ships, the battle would've been lost. But by realizing that God would do what He said He would, by understanding it's God and His way or not at all, the children of Israel gained their freedom from the most powerful nation on the planet at the time.

Whatever our area of bondage, no matter how powerful our master that has enslaved us, God is more powerful. He desires to free us and restore is, if we will let Him. He does all the work. It's only by His power and might and grace that we have any hope. But we can't quit before the miracle happens, before we see the fulfillment of the the promise. We can't turn back, or fight on our own, or give up because there's no way. We need to remember but God.

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