This morning I woke and read Exodus 17. Exodus has been a “peculiar” book to me for a long time. pretty much because I watched “The Prince of Egypt” movie ….over and over again (I love the soundtrack) and figured, “hey I know it… why read it…again?” Forgive me Father for my ignorant soul has sinned against You and You alone.
How often does that happen to you though? You’ve watched something or heard something or been through an experience before so you think… “why rehash what’s already been covered?” Well the answer is, because God is constantly rehashing, and not for His sake either. He does it for us. God is constantly replaying scenarios and working out the best outcome for us. But we’re sitting in the corner pew down the road across the street thinking “been there, done that!” The reason He rehashes is not to show us our folly… but to show us our folly. (Hear me out)
GOD does Not condemn…He teaches. Being the daughter of two teachers and ultimately having a childhood surrounded by a myriad of different teachers, all with their own unique style of getting across to their students, one tends to pick up a few things.
Remember now, God is our ultimate forgiver. He loves us and put His only begotten Son…Him ONE bwoy pickney! (oh yea…I’m Jamaican lol) on the cross at Calvary to prove just how much He loves us. He is showing us He would do anything to relate to us and to have us come back to Him, never to be separated again. (John 3 v 16, on second thought, read the whole chapter) Right! So when God rehashes or brings us back to our folly, it is not to condemn us, but to Teach Us. How else would we know where we went wrong unless He shows us. This may look like Him stripping some things back, allowing precarious predicaments to occur or even creating mirrored walls all around us called solitude. All to get our attention and to have us refocus on Him. All in the name of realignment.
The human experience. for the most part, now a days is a deeply selfish one. One that promotes “Self Made” agendas and a predominantly self driven focus with a dash of “victim” mindset for additional quirks. To break us away from that and to show us ourselves, Our Abba-Father has to remove the distractions. That is, anything that would take away our attention from HIM and the lesson He is trying to teach or reteach us for that matter. We were distracted in the first place with the wrong mindset, hence the need to bring us back around for another go.
To teach effectively one has to have intimate knowledge of 3 things:
- The student
- “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1 v 5
- The “problem”
- “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”- Romans 3 v 23
- The Desired Outcome or Solution.
- “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” – Romans 3 v 24
- “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29 v 11
Who else but GOD, our Abba-Father is wise enough to have such intimate knowledge of every aspect of us and our lives? So who else could we possibly trust to straighten us out, not by condemning us, but by lovingly guiding us. Be it a firm reprimanding (and uncomfortable situation) or a gentle leading. It can be very daunting, yes, to consider that The Creator of the universe is there watching our every move. I personally find it extremely comforting. His desire is not to judge nor ridicule nor condemn, but to guide, love and protect.
To fix a problem we must be made to face and appropriately address the problem. We can’t do that if we’re going around ignoring that we have said problem. This is where He comes in and encourages (at first), or forces us, if we’re stubborn, to address our folly. Be mindful that as a teacher He has to be unbiased. Yet as our Heavenly Father He is nurturing and kind. We get the best of both worlds!
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! – Matthew 7 v 9-11
So if you have recently found yourself in the same cycle of procrastination, for example, and not following His cue to do that task that you know you need to get done, take the hint and do that task. Otherwise you might find yourself in a downward spiral of delays that could have been avoided. (Take it from me, not fun.)
While God IS a miracle worker, He is The God of Standards. The standard of Excellence. The standard of Obedience and Rightful Authority. The standard of Humility, Honesty and Integrity. He will not sit by and allow us to constantly feed our bad habits by bailing us out every time. This does not mean that when we call on Him in our failure or down moments, He won’t answer. He will ALWAYS answer us when we call on Him. It just means that when we do call on Him, He is going to uphold us to those standards He has set. If we don’t measure up, He will pause our situation just long enough to teach us, show us our folly and remind us of what we, as His children, are called to live up to. So that we can get back into alignment with Him and His Standards.
Is this uncomfortable? Yes. Is it painful? Sometimes. Will you live through it? Of course! Just because a situation is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s not God. Sometimes growth is uncomfortable. It is a necessary discomfort.
We only grow when we learn. We only learn when the effort to understand and do better is made. THAT, is what He will help you with. When we openly seek Him out, admit our downfalls, our wrong-doings known and unknown, and repent of those things, THEN we get His attention in a way like never before. His ear is turned specially to us in that moment. Our desire to understand, to know more about Him, turns His heart to us and our situation. We should always strive to live in this posture so that we can be acceptable in His sight. By mirroring His attributes of Excellence to the world around us, the world can get a taste of The One True God that we are so blessed to call Abba. This sincere heart posture, gets God’s attention. The desire for wisdom.
King Solomon could have asked God for any thing in the world, yet he asked The Lord for wisdom and The Lord gave that to him in abundance. However God was not blind to Solomon’s behavior and perpetual sin. (Worse He has wisdom now… he should have known better. but that’s a post for another time.)
God loves us regardless of where we are in this life. He is Gracious to us in abundance, even in our cycles of mediocrity and sin. We can’t be helped unless we are shown where we are and we come to a place of acceptance about where we are. He does not condemn us for falling short. Instead He brings us back to where we started to fall and shows us the better path. Hopefully we learn and decide to take His hand and walk WITH Him this time around.
Be Blessed!
Prayer Requests always welcomed!
Ada's Revelations 