Gods Solution To Your Struggles
Memory Verse:
'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '
John 10:9
Sermon Sentence: Never forget what God has already revealed to you.
'I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. '
John 10:9
Sermon Sentence: Never forget what God has already revealed to you.
Day 1
Read Exodus 5:22-6:10
Exodus 5 ends with Moses being very discouraged. He was convinced that he had the right message. God made it clear that what Moses was going to be a part of was delivering these people from slavery in Egypt. He was also certain that the message to take a bit of time for worship was clearly from God as well. But then Pharaoh’s message got mixed up in God’s message and the wheels started to fall off of the whole thing. The problem was not that God’s message was not correct, it was that Moses' expectations were not met. He was, in that moment, struggling with believing God’s word in light of what he was experiencing. I can sure feel that thought! I tend to find myself there so often. It starts with a prayer temper tantrum where I feel like blaming God for what I am experiencing. Have you prayed those prayers before? They usually start with “Why God…?”
I get so much comfort from God’s response here. Let me write it out like I hear it and see what you think: “But the Lord said to Moses, ‘NOW….’” Now that you are fully aware of your helplessness, let me show you what I am able to do. At the end of Moses’ rope was still God’s provision and answers. I wonder how many of us are at the point of the end of our ropes or answers and God, looking down in all of His sovereignty is ready to show you something incredible. Now….
We will be reading this passage again tomorrow, but for this much, how does this feel like you have or are experiencing in life right now?
What is God teaching you today in this story?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Exodus 5 ends with Moses being very discouraged. He was convinced that he had the right message. God made it clear that what Moses was going to be a part of was delivering these people from slavery in Egypt. He was also certain that the message to take a bit of time for worship was clearly from God as well. But then Pharaoh’s message got mixed up in God’s message and the wheels started to fall off of the whole thing. The problem was not that God’s message was not correct, it was that Moses' expectations were not met. He was, in that moment, struggling with believing God’s word in light of what he was experiencing. I can sure feel that thought! I tend to find myself there so often. It starts with a prayer temper tantrum where I feel like blaming God for what I am experiencing. Have you prayed those prayers before? They usually start with “Why God…?”
I get so much comfort from God’s response here. Let me write it out like I hear it and see what you think: “But the Lord said to Moses, ‘NOW….’” Now that you are fully aware of your helplessness, let me show you what I am able to do. At the end of Moses’ rope was still God’s provision and answers. I wonder how many of us are at the point of the end of our ropes or answers and God, looking down in all of His sovereignty is ready to show you something incredible. Now….
We will be reading this passage again tomorrow, but for this much, how does this feel like you have or are experiencing in life right now?
What is God teaching you today in this story?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Exodus 6:1-9
Do you know what I find the most surprising about God’s response in this situation? The lack of an actual answer. Maybe that was a bit too heavy to say like that, because God clearly does come back with an answer. I have noticed this struggle with so many of us lately, we assume that God is hiding His word from us. That we have to find it and search it out. We operate like God is in this endless game of trying to hide as much of his revelations from us in codes, dark places, and deep meanings. He doesn’t do this. I don’t even really know where we got this idea. God desires to be heard. He proves this in His relentless and miraculous work of preserving this thing we have a ridiculous amount of access to, called the Bible. The problem is not the lack of God speaking, but us choosing to listen to what He is saying and has said.
That is where this passage lands with me. The answer is clearly given, but it is not the answer you expect. God just goes right back to saying what He has always said. I don’t think any of this message is new: Moses has already been told that he is going to deliver Israel. The rest of the message is God appealing to what He told Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Which, by the way, He does a lot of repeating over and over again throughout the Bible. The lesson feels super simple. And maybe that is the reason that we miss it so often. We expect more flash, more bang, more new words. But God just goes back to what He has already said, because if I am already struggling to have faith in what He has already said, how is hearing something new and different going to help?
What do each one of these truths from this passage mean to you in your life:
Do you know what I find the most surprising about God’s response in this situation? The lack of an actual answer. Maybe that was a bit too heavy to say like that, because God clearly does come back with an answer. I have noticed this struggle with so many of us lately, we assume that God is hiding His word from us. That we have to find it and search it out. We operate like God is in this endless game of trying to hide as much of his revelations from us in codes, dark places, and deep meanings. He doesn’t do this. I don’t even really know where we got this idea. God desires to be heard. He proves this in His relentless and miraculous work of preserving this thing we have a ridiculous amount of access to, called the Bible. The problem is not the lack of God speaking, but us choosing to listen to what He is saying and has said.
That is where this passage lands with me. The answer is clearly given, but it is not the answer you expect. God just goes right back to saying what He has always said. I don’t think any of this message is new: Moses has already been told that he is going to deliver Israel. The rest of the message is God appealing to what He told Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Which, by the way, He does a lot of repeating over and over again throughout the Bible. The lesson feels super simple. And maybe that is the reason that we miss it so often. We expect more flash, more bang, more new words. But God just goes back to what He has already said, because if I am already struggling to have faith in what He has already said, how is hearing something new and different going to help?
What do each one of these truths from this passage mean to you in your life:
- I will lead you.
- I will deliver you.
- I will redeem you.
- You will be my people.
- I will be your God.
Day 3
Read Exodus 3:1-12
I am reading a book right now that I read for the first time a few years ago. It is called “When People Are Big and God Is Small.” The writer has been one of my favorites for a few years. Ed Welch, the writer, does a great job of explaining where we fear people more than we fear God. A fear of God can be a healthy and good thing, and in fact is commanded in the Bible. But understand that is a healthy fear. An unhealthy fear is the one we can have for other people. It is unhealthy because, as we have seen in this series, it can conflate and confuse the words of God from our hearts. The greatest danger comes to us when we listen to Pharaoh’s words, or the anti- God words coming at us each and everyday. But it is not just a one time event that happens and we are good to go. It is daily that we are reminded that we are dying out to that voice and reminding ourselves of the voice we should be hearing.
Here, in this story, is a great example of the fear of God. Moses approaches this moment in an awe and wonder that is worthy of the situation. When would he have ever seen anything quite like this? The weight of God’s words in this moment were much more than they would be later on. Fast forward a few chapters to the story we started the week in and you see a big difference. Moses stopped believing God’s word out of the fear that drummed up from the people turning against him. Here, he believed God’s word because of the fear of God he witnessed in the sight before him and the incredible moment he experienced. It was easier to believe God’s incredible word in that moment than it was after life started to drag Moses through the mud!
How has God’s word been changed in your heart and mind after life became difficult?
Why do you think that God chose to reveal His word to Moses in this way?
How does this become your prayer today?
I am reading a book right now that I read for the first time a few years ago. It is called “When People Are Big and God Is Small.” The writer has been one of my favorites for a few years. Ed Welch, the writer, does a great job of explaining where we fear people more than we fear God. A fear of God can be a healthy and good thing, and in fact is commanded in the Bible. But understand that is a healthy fear. An unhealthy fear is the one we can have for other people. It is unhealthy because, as we have seen in this series, it can conflate and confuse the words of God from our hearts. The greatest danger comes to us when we listen to Pharaoh’s words, or the anti- God words coming at us each and everyday. But it is not just a one time event that happens and we are good to go. It is daily that we are reminded that we are dying out to that voice and reminding ourselves of the voice we should be hearing.
Here, in this story, is a great example of the fear of God. Moses approaches this moment in an awe and wonder that is worthy of the situation. When would he have ever seen anything quite like this? The weight of God’s words in this moment were much more than they would be later on. Fast forward a few chapters to the story we started the week in and you see a big difference. Moses stopped believing God’s word out of the fear that drummed up from the people turning against him. Here, he believed God’s word because of the fear of God he witnessed in the sight before him and the incredible moment he experienced. It was easier to believe God’s incredible word in that moment than it was after life started to drag Moses through the mud!
How has God’s word been changed in your heart and mind after life became difficult?
Why do you think that God chose to reveal His word to Moses in this way?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Exodus 3:13-22
I really hope that you are starting to catch the rhythms of this story in this study. God told Moses to go to Egypt and did you notice what he then asked him to do? Gather the leaders. Why? Because in gathering the leaders he could tell them the message from God. It is in the gathering that the words of God have to be studied. God told them the same things in that meeting that He seems to be telling the people in all of these meetings. He told them that He has seen them. He knows what they are going through and He plans to act on their behalf. He is going to act in a way that will be unmistakably from Him. He will lead them, deliver them, redeem them, and make them His people. It may not say that exactly the same way it has, but surely you see the same message over and over again. It must be something important!
Maybe so important that we should be reminded again and again of it ourselves. The message that God gave the Israelites that day is the same message we will hear next Sunday and the next Sunday when we gather. Each time we gather it should be our goal to remind ourselves that God sees us and knows what the enemy has done against us and will deliver us.
Why is it important to you to know that God sees you?
Why is it important for you to know that God knows what has been done against you as well?
How does this study today become part of your prayer?
I really hope that you are starting to catch the rhythms of this story in this study. God told Moses to go to Egypt and did you notice what he then asked him to do? Gather the leaders. Why? Because in gathering the leaders he could tell them the message from God. It is in the gathering that the words of God have to be studied. God told them the same things in that meeting that He seems to be telling the people in all of these meetings. He told them that He has seen them. He knows what they are going through and He plans to act on their behalf. He is going to act in a way that will be unmistakably from Him. He will lead them, deliver them, redeem them, and make them His people. It may not say that exactly the same way it has, but surely you see the same message over and over again. It must be something important!
Maybe so important that we should be reminded again and again of it ourselves. The message that God gave the Israelites that day is the same message we will hear next Sunday and the next Sunday when we gather. Each time we gather it should be our goal to remind ourselves that God sees us and knows what the enemy has done against us and will deliver us.
Why is it important to you to know that God sees you?
Why is it important for you to know that God knows what has been done against you as well?
How does this study today become part of your prayer?
Day 5
Read Psalm 3
How often do you feel like you are not heard? Maybe it is at your job or even in your marriage or by your kids. The problem with suspending everyday justice for God to handle is that there are a few times in life that we just don’t feel like our part of the story is getting through all of the other sounds. Therefore we have to make ourselves heard. So we yell, lose our cool, or just claim what it is we deserve. If no one else is going to notice that we are not being heard, why not?
This is a big part of struggling with our faith. It is really hard to live in a place daily where we just wait patiently on God. That is a lot of what our story for the week, the one about the Exodus, was all about. God started the conversation by reminding the people that He saw them, heard their cries, and was ready to deliver them.
I wonder if you are feeling like you are not being heard in a part of your life today?
What does this Psalm teach you about what you are facing today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
How often do you feel like you are not heard? Maybe it is at your job or even in your marriage or by your kids. The problem with suspending everyday justice for God to handle is that there are a few times in life that we just don’t feel like our part of the story is getting through all of the other sounds. Therefore we have to make ourselves heard. So we yell, lose our cool, or just claim what it is we deserve. If no one else is going to notice that we are not being heard, why not?
This is a big part of struggling with our faith. It is really hard to live in a place daily where we just wait patiently on God. That is a lot of what our story for the week, the one about the Exodus, was all about. God started the conversation by reminding the people that He saw them, heard their cries, and was ready to deliver them.
I wonder if you are feeling like you are not being heard in a part of your life today?
What does this Psalm teach you about what you are facing today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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