So we had a good sermon at Cornwall today. Greg talked about Four Life Lessons we learn in Desert Times, based upon Exodus 3 and Exodus 13.
The Isrealites left Egypt, and were headed to a place that God had promised them that was about 2 weeks away. God led them with a pillar of clouds by day and a pillar of fire by night (pretty awe inspiring I would think). The problem was, that instead of heading due East and then a little North, like they expected, the Pillar went South. To the Isrealites, God was leading them in the wrong direction, and sometimes, they would pack up and be ready to go and the pillar wouldn’t move at all. So, the questions we end up with are: Will YOU follow God when He leads you in an unexpected direction? Sometimes He will lead us in ways we don’t understand and we just need to trust Him and continue to follow.
- The desert is the place I learn PATIENCE.
- If you will pursue God with all your heart, soul and mind, you WILL spend time in the desert, but you also can be assured that God will NEVER forget us there.
- The desert is the place where God makes me STRONG.
- Will we follow God 1 day at a time? – God provided the Isrealites with manna every morning and told them to only take what they needed for the day and don’t save some extra for tomorrow. He wanted them to trust Him each day and follow him 1 day at a time, but some of them took extra. When they awoke the next day, the extra was full of maggots and had gone bad, so not trusting Him did them no good anyway. We need to lean on Him to provide for our needs and not worry about our future as long as we are doing what He wants in our lives.
- God is not nearly as concerned with where his people are GOING as with WHO THEY WILL BE when they get there. – David was annointed king of Isreal, but ended up running for his life and hiding in caves before he took the throne. This was a very roundabout path, but God taught David to trust Him and have patience while he was in his Desert.
- The desert is where I come face to face with my TEMPTATION and my SIN.
- You are not in the desert because of your sin, but sometimes it takes a desert experience to take a good hard look at our heart and begin to trust our God to help us see where we are and how God will lead us out.
- The desert is the place where I learn to love God for God’s sake; not just for the sake of the milk and honey that he gives me.
- So the question this brought to me, is; What is our MOTIVE for our love for God or our obedience to Him? We need to love Him and be obedient to Him because it will please Him, not because of the prize we will get, or think we will get. I have a friend, who is a Godly man, who told me that he struggles with wanting to make deals with God while he is in the desert. He has these internal thoughts like; “OK, if I do this, then maybe God will do that, or give me this”. He fights it and realizes that this isn’t what God wants us to do in the desert, and he is working on just trusting God each and every day. During his hardship recently, God has provided for his family each and every day and they haven’t had everything go totally south, though at times he felt like it. In the end, all is not lost and they are seeing the edge of the desert. God is bringing them through it.
Well, I know that this sermon today made me think alot about how I act when in the desert or having a desert experience. The main thing I need to remember is (quote from Greg during the sermon) “God’s path is not always the quickest route, but it is the BEST route for us in our situation.”
Here is a link to the sermon video if you want to see and hear it for yourself.