Moses’ Prayer Life: God Comes Down to Us

In the first ten verses of Exodus 3, God does most of the talking. Yes, Moses responds when God calls his name but beyond that it’s God speaking with Moses and in verse 8 God says something I find both amazing and reassuring. After telling Moses that He has seen the suffering of His people, God says, “So I have come down to deliver them…” God saw that His people were in a bad situation, and He came down to do something about it. I’m encouraged because I believe He still responds the same way today when His children are in a bad situation.

Going back to the definition that I found for the first part of this series, prayer is described as something that sounds one sided. It is defined in a way that makes it sound as if we do all the talking while God listens. Yes, there is the hope that God will do something in response to whatever we are asking but, in this case, God starts the prayer by describing what He was already in the process of doing.

Here we see an active God who has come down to deliver. The same could be said about what we see in the Gospels. God saw that mankind was lost in sin and so He came down and took on flesh with the goal of delivering us from a bad situation. Because God loves us, He came down and did something about our situation. This is a fundamental part of the Christian doctrine. Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, came down to earth and died to pay our sin debt. God is not passively watching us from a distance, He was and is active in the lives of His children, just as He revealed Himself to be during Moses’ prayer time at the burning bush.

In my previous post about Moses’ prayer life, I wrote that we must be willing to listen from time to time when we pray. I believe that if we do so, we will find that God is active in our lives even before we ask. Prayer can serve as an opportunity for God to reveal what He is doing in our lives, if we give Him the chance to do so. So, continue to make your supplications known to God. Continue to ask with the expectation that He will respond in some way. Just make sure that you are willing to stop from time to time to give Him a chance to reveal what He is doing in response to what you are asking.

Why Worry? God Will Provide!

I once had a front row seat for a demonstration of what worry will do to a person over time as a close family member spent decades worrying about having enough money. They never directly said so but it was clear in the way they lived and in the things that they said that they were driven out of a fear of running out. Making matters worse, their fear was mixed with pride as they continued with their own self effort even in the face of evidence that what they were doing was not getting them what they wanted. In the end they died alone and unhappy, being overcome by the results of an addiction that masked the stress of feeling like the bottom might fall out at any moment.

I watched as this person, who claimed to be a good Christian, struggled against the ebb and flow that is a normal part of life. With their Bible nearby, theirs was a life of fear instead of an example of great faith. Even as they bragged about how they knew the Good Book better than I did, they somehow never came to trust in a very important promise:

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)

I wish this was the only person that I knew who claimed to know the Bible well but who never fully accepted Philippians 4:19. In fact, I’ve known dozens of Christians whose lives were more of a demonstration of fear and/or pride as opposed to an example of faith. And yes, as I point my finger at others there are fingers pointing back at me. I was once one who professed faith in Christ but, driven by fear, relied on my own ability to try to earn a living. Just like the others I found that with all my hard work either I never had enough to make ends meet or, when I did, I was too stressed to enjoy what I had.

It took a very odd dream where I was faced with a costly repair for God to get my attention. As I woke from the dream I could somehow tell that God was asking me how I should handle the situation. I knew the answer He expected and responded accordingly, telling God that I would pray. He responded by asking, “Why don’t you?” Since then I have done just that when a need arises and each time God answers with what I need. I’m not yet perfect at doing this and I still sometimes forget to ask. But eventually, when I repent of my own efforts and ask God to provide, I find that His timing is always perfect. He always comes through.

As Christians we all know that God will provide for our needs yet do we…do you…live like He will provide? If you are not a Christian you are missing out on the peace that comes with knowing that you are loved and that God will take care of you because He loves you. So let me ask you something. Do you choose to trust God to provide? It’s not always easy to do but it is a great place to be.