Day 332: "Now A New King Arose Over Egypt,"
Read: Exodus 1:8 - 32
This devotion is one of encouragement to those who are going through
tough times. When it seems as though there is no way out of a situation
and everything is closing in on you, you can rest assure that God is
just a whisper away to help you. There is a great chain attached to all
of our spirits. I call this chain the fear of being free. The
fear
of learning how to live in the freedom that God offers to us. Learning
to live in freedom is one of the hardest things we will ever do. The
Hebrew slaves in Exodus never learned to live as free people, many of us
today struggle with that as well. The fear that is caused by the
realization that we have complete freedom through Christ.
This
complete freedom is terrifying to people, so we will act in all kinds of
ways that deny our freedom. We blame others for our unhappiness. We say
things like “I had no choice,” when actually we have tons of choices.
We claim that others made us do this or that, when every single thing we
do is actually by our own choice. We are free
to do anything we
wish to do, as long as we are willing to accept the consequences – and
it’s the consequences of living as free creatures that scares people
half to death. Examine and study for yourself the interaction between Pharaoh and the midwives. A choice - "if it is a boy - kill it, if a girl then let it live." A choice, defy Pharaoh and die!
Ever thought about that before? Ever thought about the awesome responsibility
that comes with freedom, about how much courage it actually takes to
embrace your freedom and live as a free person? The freedom to
choose, remain in bondage, defy the king of Egypt and risk death or
(V.17) "But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt
had commanded them, but let the boys live." The Hebrew Midwives chose
to risk everything to live the free promise of life for the King of
Kings. Tied down to a life of bondage to an earthly king, they chose
to exercise their right of freedom to move beyond the harshness of
their life's circumstance. A new KING arose over Egypt, GOD!
As
I said, learning to live in freedom, I think, is one of the hardest
things we will ever do. There’s a whole book of the Bible (called
Exodus) that’s about the struggle of an entire race of people to learn
to live in their new found freedom. Today for many of us we are ruled by
kings called addictions, bullying, violence, racism, poverty, hunger,
oppression, threats of terrorism, traumatic memories of the events of
9/11/11. It is something that I and so many others struggle against,
living beyond these things that bind us to our chains of fear, living in the freedom freely offered to us by God our One and only true Eternal KING! How do we learn to freely accept God's freedom, overcoming ourselves?
Let Us Pray: Psalm 17 (A prayer the Hebrew Midwives might have offered unto God)
http://www.youtube.com/
Read: Exodus 1:8 - 32
This devotion is one of encouragement to those who are going through tough times. When it seems as though there is no way out of a situation and everything is closing in on you, you can rest assure that God is just a whisper away to help you. There is a great chain attached to all of our spirits. I call this chain the fear of being free. The
fear of learning how to live in the freedom that God offers to us. Learning to live in freedom is one of the hardest things we will ever do. The Hebrew slaves in Exodus never learned to live as free people, many of us today struggle with that as well. The fear that is caused by the realization that we have complete freedom through Christ.
This complete freedom is terrifying to people, so we will act in all kinds of ways that deny our freedom. We blame others for our unhappiness. We say things like “I had no choice,” when actually we have tons of choices. We claim that others made us do this or that, when every single thing we do is actually by our own choice. We are free
to do anything we wish to do, as long as we are willing to accept the consequences – and it’s the consequences of living as free creatures that scares people half to death. Examine and study for yourself the interaction between Pharaoh and the midwives. A choice - "if it is a boy - kill it, if a girl then let it live." A choice, defy Pharaoh and die!
Ever thought about that before? Ever thought about the awesome responsibility that comes with freedom, about how much courage it actually takes to embrace your freedom and live as a free person? The freedom to choose, remain in bondage, defy the king of Egypt and risk death or (V.17) "But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live." The Hebrew Midwives chose to risk everything to live the free promise of life for the King of Kings. Tied down to a life of bondage to an earthly king, they chose to exercise their right of freedom to move beyond the harshness of their life's circumstance. A new KING arose over Egypt, GOD!
As I said, learning to live in freedom, I think, is one of the hardest things we will ever do. There’s a whole book of the Bible (called Exodus) that’s about the struggle of an entire race of people to learn to live in their new found freedom. Today for many of us we are ruled by kings called addictions, bullying, violence, racism, poverty, hunger,
oppression, threats of terrorism, traumatic memories of the events of 9/11/11. It is something that I and so many others struggle against, living beyond these things that bind us to our chains of fear, living in the freedom freely offered to us by God our One and only true Eternal KING! How do we learn to freely accept God's freedom, overcoming ourselves?
Let Us Pray: Psalm 17 (A prayer the Hebrew Midwives might have offered unto God)
http://www.youtube.com/
More to this Life by Steven Curtis Chapman
www.youtube.com
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