This morning I asked for a simple word, something that would help me as I wrestle with God for a blessing in my prayers for people who don’t know Him, and as I go about the tasks of the day.
He sent me to Exodus 4:31. Moses had tried in his own strength to deliver God’s people from bondage in Egypt. It didn’t work. God took him into the wilderness and after forty years ‘in training’ he was ready to go back and begin the long process of persuading Pharaoh to “let my people go.”
But first he needed to talk to the people. They had been slaves for a long time. Some of them certainly had given up hope that God cared about their situation. When Moses came to them and showed them all the signs and wonders that God enabled him to perform, “The people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.”
Sometimes I pray “whatever it takes” for those who are hardened by their slavery to sin and unbelief, but am never quite sure “whatever it takes” might be. This verse offers one clue. If someone is struggling, whether in bondage to sin or with added afflictions like illness or calamity, they need to know that God does visit His people, and that He is aware and cares about what is happening to them. These folks hadn’t been delivered yet, but for a start, it was enough to know God was still there. They humbly bowed and worshiped Him.
The people on my prayer list are in mixed circumstances. I know that some of them fear that God has abandoned them. How can anyone worship a God who doesn’t seem to care? Others have abandoned God, and in doing that are caught up in a sinful lifestyle. Sinners worship their sin and cannot worship God. However, if that sin isn’t a ball in chain yet, it will become one, and in that bondage they will cry out to Him.
No matter what anyone is experiencing, they need to know that God is not ‘out there’ with His back turned, but right here, watching them, caring about them. How can they know that?
Moses showed the Israelites extraordinary powers from God and they were convinced, but I’m not given those abilities. Instead, God gives me the power to visit His people and to be there for them in their affliction, a power that seems insignificant to me, but for anyone who is suffering, it might be a revelation from Him that He has not left them alone.
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