How Quickly We Forget…To Pray by Dawn Foster
Today’s Passage – Exodus 30 – 32 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – Luke 15 – 16; Proverbs 30; Psalms 146 – 150
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 55:17
Read previous posts from this passage – “Who Is On The Lord’s Side?” and “Called of God…“
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:7-8)
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” (Luke 18:1)
The book of Exodus can be described in many ways. It is predominantly a story of how we as humans so quickly forget what the Lord has done for us. Time, and time again throughout the book we see how the children of Israel cried, complained, murmured, and just plain forgot. Exodus 5:21, 14:11, 15:24, 16:2-3, 17:2-3, 32:1 are just a few examples of this. As saved individuals we should never forget the things the Lord our God has done for us.
In Exodus 30:1-9 Moses tells us God’s instructions on how to build the Altar, and the use of incense on the Altar. More specifically in Exodus 30:7-9 the verses describe what is to be done with the incense. “And Aa’-ron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aa’-ron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.” In these three verses incense is a picture of our prayers. We only pray to one God, the only God. We do not pray to saints, golden idols, or anything else.
Exodus 32 discusses Israel’s Golden Calf. They wanted “gods” to worship, and pray to. How quickly they forgot they already had the one, and only God who delivered them out of Egypt. I have pondered the idea throughout reading this book… If every time another “problem” came up for Israel, instead of murmuring, and complaining, they took all of that exertion and just went to their knees in prayer… would they have so quickly forgotten all that the Lord had done, and was doing? I do not think they would have.
We do the same thing in this day and age. Something goes wrong, and the first thing we do is complain. We say something we should not have. We pass blame. Instead, what would happen if we went to God in that same second something went wrong? Would it change our minds? Our hearts? Everyone has heard of the phrase, “Prayer changes things.” It changes our whole way of thinking. It is our connection to the Lord. It teaches us to be grateful, faithful, and trusting. If the children of Israel had went to their knees there would have been a lot less complaining, and a lot more remembering. How quickly we forget the blessings we receive, God’s faithfulness, His provisions, the simple fact that we are still breathing on this earth. How quickly we forget to pray.
Did you take time to Pray today?
Posted in Devotions by Dawn Foster with 3 comments.
Such a true thought you had for us Dawn. Our flesh seems to takeover and our first thoughts when something goes wrong is to complain when in fact we should pray. Thanks for the reminder
This is so convicting! Thank you for sharing this thought.
Thank you for taking the time to write a great blog. Very thought-provoking. Amen