Following Through
Today’s Passage – Exodus 22 – 24 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click hereto view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – Luke 8 – 9; Proverbs 27; Psalms 126 – 130)
Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Isaiah 51:11
Read the “0127 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Read a previous post from this passage – “Living in Canaan“
“And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.” (Exodus 24:3)
In chapter 24 of our reading today in the Book of Exodus, we see Moses telling the people the words that God had given Him, which included the Ten Commandments. (See Exodus 20 – 23 for Moses account of what God told him to tell the people.) God had given many laws for the people to live by and the people were very pleased with what the Lord had said, and at the time they committed to cheerfully obey what God had commanded them. However, we will soon discover that when Moses goes back up to meet with God and is gone for a long period of time, the people will completely forsake Him, and create their own idol to worship. (If you want to read ahead, you can see the story in Exodus 32.) The point is that when God was with them and all the excitement of the smoke and thunder and lightning was in front of them, they were perfectly willing to follow God, but after 40 days of Moses’ absence, and none of the excitement they had previously experienced, they decided that they would try to create some excitement of their own; but they abandoned God.
Right now at our church we are experiencing some wonderful days. People are coming back to church and seem to be hungry for the Word of God. We are seeing quite a few new people and some are getting saved; and lives are changing. It certainly is exciting to see and experience what God is doing. His presence has been felt in our services, and I am looking forward to what God is going to do in the days ahead. Right now, it seems that everybody at our church wants to do right and live for the Lord. However, I know that there will come a day when the excitement will recede and we will have days when the crowds will be smaller and the zeal will not be as strong. My question is this: will the people still want to follow through with the decisions that they made in the exciting times when the excitement goes away?
Our kids just came back from camp and they are excited. God spoke to them in wonderful ways and they made decisions to do right. But, will they follow through with those decisions when the excitement of snow camp is a distant memory?
My point is that we need to develop our Christian character to the extent that we follow through with what God wants for us regardless of the emotional temperature of any given day. We need to do right and continue to follow the Lord’s will for our lives, even when the crowd is not with us, cheering us on, and regardless of how we feel. I hope and pray the spirit of revival continues and increases in the days ahead. I love living on the mountaintop, but I also pray that if I have to go through a valley that I will remain faithful to the decisions I made back on the mountain.
Posted in Devotions by Phil Erickson with 3 comments.
Amen
Amen Pastor. When following Jesus, you cannot have one foot on the boat and the other foot on the dock .You cannot have it both ways, it is only His way.like the post.
You must follow the lord with both feet it is important to see the work of the lord and enjoy every minute of it.