Moses: Forward by Faith - 2

Living by faith almost always guarantees hardships. Obviously, people don't generally like this message, but it's true more often than not. It always seems that the more intimate we are with the Lord, the more difficult our walk. When we choose to surrender to God and obey Him no matter what, we will sometimes suffer for that decision and at times we may even be asked to make painful sacrifices. In order to serve the Lord, Moses had to choose to go forward by faith in spite of the daunting challenges. We can learn much from Moses' actions and lifestyle.

Moses grew up in the Pharaoh's palace. So he knew all about the Egyptian ruler's pride, his huge ego, as well as the importance of Hebrew slave labor. With such knowledge, he recognized how difficult it would be to carry out God's command to free His people. Yet, he left his comfortable life behind so he could obey God as his master.

As it turns out, Moses' job only began with the freeing of all the Hebrew slaves. He then spent more than 40 years leading this errant people around in circles in the middle of the hot, merciless desert sun and interceding for them when they disobeyed God, calling upon the Lord for rescue when they faced great peril.

Moses' life was marked by challenge and sacrifice, but more than that, it was shaped by an intimate relationship with God. Every hardship that knocked away his trust in himself, strengthened his faith in the Lord. When a new challenge arose, Moses turned first to God for guidance and provision. We would do well to imitate him. We must learn to realize how much easier our Christian walk will be if we just consult God first.

Scripture tells us that trials produce a deeper intimacy with the Lord: "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because he who suffers in the the body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God" (1Pe 4:1-2). Moses' life demonstrates this principle, which holds true for us today also. Hardships, trials and struggles are inevitable. How sad it is that we often try doing everything within our power to avoid them. But how blessed we are that we're almost always unsuccessful. A wiser approach is to meet the challenge head on and go forward by faith the way Moses did, learning to rest in the strength of the Lord. He is sufficient for all our needs.

Just a short blog today as I've had arthritis flare up in my left hand and it's painful and difficult to type this morning. Guess I've done too much knitting lately. I will give it rest for a day or so and see what happens. It really is painful to move my fingers this morning. I knew it was flaring up yesterday because I kept getting painful twinges in the big joint of my "pointy" finger.

For the past few days I've been waking up early thanks to the Lord. I pray every night that He will wake me early so I can get my blog done before noon! and he's been faithful to wake me, so with Michael still in bed at that time I can't very well get my bed made for the day. So I've put off doing my chores until after he wakes up. I guess it will probably be this way from now on out until next summer. So I'm going to finish this up and get in there and get my chores done.

The days sure are getting shorter now. It gets dark so early and stays dark in the mornings until a much later time. We had rain last night (.78 of an inch!!) so I'm glad I thought to make sure my car windows were up before coming in last night after prayer meeting. Which, by the way is changing to 5:00 PM on Tuesdays instead of 7:00. I don't know how that will work out around dinner and the feeding of the animals. Michael was very encouraging, suggesting that we just eat late on Tuesdays so I can still make my meeting. (I thought that was nice of him!) We'll have to see how it goes. I just hate to be gone so much away from Michael. I get to feeling like I'm neglecting him. He never seems to mind but that doesn't keep me from feeling guilty. Well, I know this has been really short for today but I'm not going to push my hand and fingers.

If you get the chance check out skatamama. She's got some awesome cloud pictures. Didn't get the chance to talk to Betty last night on msn but I got a short email from her and got the impression she might be struggling over things. So keep her in your prayers. Franci asked us to keep Freddie in our prayers so that he will adjust to doing his schoolwork and not get too headstrong against it or her! Kim had cataract surgery yesterday so keep her in your prayers that she might heal quickly and be back to work in no time at all. Peggy's back surgery has been rescheduled for the 24th so she needs prayer. Pray that the doctors will be guided by the Lord and that the surgery will be successful enough to at least lessen the pain in her back. And pray for me with my hearing loss. It has really been giving me a difficult time lately. The roar I hear all the time has increased to an almost impossible-to-stay-sane level. It was so bad at prayer meeting last night that I couldn't even pray. I couldn't understand what anyone else was saying. I just get so tired from the constant roar in my head. It's just like trying to hear what someone says while standing next to a waterfall. Very stressful! And poor Michael. I had to ask him to repeat almost everything he said to me. I hate having to do that but if I don't ask him to repeat it, there's no communication between the two of us. Regardless, it is unpleasant for both of us. And pray for clear weather for Saturday because I still need to wash my car. It's been two weeks now and I don't want to get out of the habit of keeping it clean. Guess I better stop and rest my hand it's really beginning to throb. Until tomorrow...