Prayer: Father, You choose the prayer of the heart above the prayer of rote meaninglessness. May my prayer of this day, have a passion of the heart! Amen.
Reading: Exodus 2 key: vs. 21-24
21 Moses was content to stay on with the man. Later he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son and he named him Gershom, saying, “I have been an outsider in a foreign land.”
23 Now it came about over the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. Bnei-Yisrael groaned because of their slavery. They cried out and their cry from slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their sobbing and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Attention: There are many types of slavery. We can be slaves financially, slaves to addictive habits, slaves to our own doing or slaves by force. We can be slaves individually, or slaves collectively. Slavery of any kind and type is oppressive.
The Hebrew nation of Bnei-Yisrael (Adonai’s chosen nation) is being forced as a nation to submit to Egyptian pagan culture (worshipped many gods). As much as this was a battle of cultures, this confrontation was a battle between One God and Egypt’s many gods. Exodus’ story is also the difficulty in extricating a nation who is comfortable and prospering, to leave and enter the land Adonai has promised their forefathers. Adonai has a plan for His people. He has a plan for you. Will you choose to enter His plan today?
God even had to prepare the man for the plan. His choice was Moses. Moses tells us of his birth and providential sparing by a mother who gave up her child, to save her child. When the daughter of Pharoah found the child, she was endeared to him and unknowingly invited his mother to nurse him for her. Moses had the finest education in Egypt but as a man he chose to identify with his people and suffer rather than to live in luxury. He saw the persecution and he was compelled to stand up against the oppression, even to the point of murder, which caused Moses to flee from Pharoah.
While Moses spent years in the wilderness being prepared by Adonai, the nation of Bnei-Yisrael was being prepared to be rescued by Adonai and leave Egypt. When the Hebrew nation had had enough, we are told that they “cried out” to Adonai, and He “heard their sobbing and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Had He forgotten? No, but He was reminded.
Are you ready to cry out today? Has your oppression, suffering, anxiety levels reached your maximum tolerance? Are you ready to cry, “help!”? I have heard it said that God is ready to hear when we are at our lowest, and all we can do is look up and cry out! If you are out of options, if you are through doing life your way, I encourage you to pray the simple pray of desperation today! HELP!
Action: I am maximized and desperate. Lord, I cry out to You today!
Yield: I give my life and heart to Adonai!
Engage: I choose to live life with God!
Relationship: I only have a healthy relationship with God when I am with Him!
Prayer: Father, how foolish to try to do life on my own, apart from You. I choose today to cry out to You about the oppression, pain, and suffering I am going through. I choose to do life with You. Amen.
Memory Verse: Job 30:24
24 Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out His hand,
and in his distress cry for help?
Music Video: Michael W. Smith—This Is The Air I Breathe https://youtu.be/mEDcKZB7r2A
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!