I began my morning in the book of Deuteronomy chapters 7 & 8. I love reading about the children of Israel, their exodus out of Egypt and slavery, their reaction to their testing and how very similar it is to my own journey through life. Obedience, disobedience, need, abundance, unfamiliar, familiar.  Sometimes it feels like someone has dipped me in hot water, removed me and thrown me in ice cold water.

Deuteronomy 8:2-6 GW says;  Remember that for 40 years the Lord your God led you on your journey in the desert. He did this in order to humble you and test you. He wanted to know whether or not you would wholeheartedly obey his commands.  So he made you suffer from hunger and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had seen before. He did this to teach you that a person cannot live on bread alone but on every word that the Lord speaks.  Your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t swell these past 40 years.  Learn this lesson by heart: The Lord your God was disciplining you as parents discipline their children.  Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Follow his directions, and fear him.

I am much wiser today than I was before I turned 50 and each day brings greater insight and deeper revelation of who God is and what He’s been trying to teach me. I’ve suffered in my wilderness but learned to keep my eyes on the God who loves me. Was it easy? No. Worth it? Yes! I’ve never given my children everything they asked for, some of it wasn’t good for them. I had to teach them valuable lessons in life, one of which was that if they disobeyed, they would get their butts beaten. After a few times of keeping my word to them, they learned either not to do it or to expect punishment for what they did. 

Isn’t that how we are with God? Pushing the envelope, seeing how much we can get away with before it’s noticed? Trust me, we’re only hurting ourselves and our progress. I don’t want to fall down the mountainside anymore. First off, the fall really hurts me and it takes a long time to recover. Secondly, I know I’m going to have to climb back up that mountain I was halfway up. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to do that.  I hate back tracking! 

This is my prayer, Lord, that you would cause me to learn quickly so that I’m ready to do what you’ve purposed me to do. So many souls are lost and need to hear of a God that loves them fiercely and deeply, just as you love me. Help me to love like that. A fierce lover, ready to lay down my life, pick up your Word and follow you. Not where I want to go, where you want me to go. That you prosper me in every way so that my prosperity may prosper your Kingdom. I would not be rich for my own comfort, but to help others. Yours is the Kingdom, power and glory forever. Amen