Your Will

Luke 22:42-43 NRSV

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.”

There are so many times in our lives that what we think we want, or what we think we need may not be what God has for us. It’s hard, but he has a plan. What we learn is that - yes, we can tell him what we want, but submit our will to him. That little major bit right there. When Jesus submitted his will, and angel strengthened him. When we say, “not my will but yours” hmm. It lightens our load-whatever it is. 

Today, Lord- you know what is happening. You know what we need. Your will Lord . . .Your will. Let that be our prayer. enough for now.

Know Who You Are

Exodus 3:1-6 NRSV

“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Just a thought. “You must know who you are.” Moses was ‘wooed’ to the burning bush, by God.  It was a phenomena- a bush burning but not burning up. And God called to him . . .from the bush that was burning but not burning up. And Moses answered. That’s enough right there. Moses answered. We could stop there, but no. 

Moses answered. And God told him to take off his shoes because where he was standing is holy ground. In the presence of the Lord is holy ground. 

You must know who you are. You start by allowing yourself to be wooed by God, by being receptive. And then by

And then by answering when he calls. He does call. He does woo. And know that when you answer, you are positions to know who you are. Who you are as his beloved. Who you are as being connected to him. Who you are in his presence. Who you grounded in him. And it goes deeper and deeper. Take off anything that comes between you and God and watch what he is doing. Watch and follow. It gets better and better. enough for now.

Hope

 

Watch Trust

Exodus 14:13 NRSV

“But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

This is just before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. Go back and reread Exodus 14. Moses assured the people that those who troubled them would not be seen again- and they weren’t. 

For us now, when we look to God, those that trouble us cannot affect us. In this case, we may see them but they have no power, they have nothing that can harm us. The key is to follow God’s instructions and he moves us though dangers seen and unseen, enemies we know and those we don’t. Moses watched for the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to move safely toward what was promised. We watch what God is doing as we move safely to our promise, our hope. Enough for now.

Finally

Ephesians 6:10 NRSV

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.” 

 ‘Finally’ is the conclusion of instructions Paul gave. Go back to Ephesians 5:21 and read. It is the treating of those who had no cultural rights or power - children, wives, slaves. It is how we submit to one another, how we treat one another. 

That is the battle- how we treat one another. We submit to one another through submitting to God. He handles it.  All of that is before the ‘finally’. Then after we have done that we can be strong in the Lord. Not of our own strength or ability, but in him. That’s power. We build up to it. 

My daughter in love will have us work with less weight at first and as we are strengthened we take on more weight. We take each day at a time growing in God and in his power. The more we grow, the more we trust in his power, and not our own. Blessings of his strength and power! enough for now.

His Voice

John 10:1-5 NRSV

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

The four shepherds had their flock in a sheepfold.  An assistant would lie across the opening, as the gate keeper. No one entered but the shepherds. When it was time the shepherd would call their sheep, and they would follow by the shepherds song. It was a melodic song, a chant, the sheep knew - and they followed. 

They knew that voice among the other voices. They knew that voice in spite of whatever was going on around them. Sheep have no sense of direction and can get lost easily, but the voice as their rescuer. They can’t smell water and can be close to water and not know it, but the voice who leds to water. They will eat whatever is in front of them, but the voice who watches over and leads in places of nourishment. They can’t even clean themselves, but the voice, who cleans them off, sets them on their way.

We, like sheep, go astray, but the voice. The good shepherd rescues us, guides us, nourishes us, cleans us up, and sets us on our way. But we must listen for his voice. It’s our relationship with him. enough for now.

Have to Go

Numbers 14:1-4 NRSV

“Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.”

I found it so interesting that even after Moses had led the people out, and that the spies brought back a good report of a land fertile, but a bad report of the size of the inhabitants, that the people grumbled again. They listened to the wrong report. Momma used to say “You don’t change horses in the middle of the stream.”  The Israelites wanted to go back into captivity. Come on. But sometimes what is familiar feels safer than the unknown. The thing about it is that we can’t stay captive to our own fears, our own trials. We can’t stay, can’t go back, we must go forward. That is where our freedom is. Have you seen the movie “Harriet”? You saw her, “Moses” freeing the slaves. They couldn’t stay, couldn’t go back, had to go forward. Even now, whatever is binding us -we can move forward, we must move forward. Why would we want to be held down? We must keep on keeping on. enough for now.