Sunday, July 5, 2009

Moses

I have been doing a lot of contemplating lately. In a recent time with God I found these words from Luci Swindoll:

"The most amazing person in this whole bunch is Moses, because of a choice he made. And what did he choose? He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God. Why would he do that? At that time, Egypt was the loftiest society of the day - rich in beauty, education, art, trade, culture - and the Hebrew people were, by comparison, nothing more than a dung heap on the outskirts of town. Moses, even though he had been reared from babyhood by the daughter of Pharaoh, chose the dung heap. Unbelievable!Instead of staying where things were nice and clean, prestigious and comfortable, he chose mistreatment. I find that thought-provoking.

Would I choose mistreatment? I wonder if I'd have that strength of character. Loving the nicer things in life, I'd have to reach down into that part of me where my values lie. What would it take to make me choose what's best rather than what's easiest? Such a decision would have to come from a sense of direction - from my faith.

By faith, Moses chose wisely and looked at the disgrace and mistreatment as a temporary burden, with his ultimate reward of greater value than what society had to offer. Faith willfully chooses even disgrace or mistreatment because it sees, through an act of trust, the eventual reward that comes from Him who is invisible."

What will I choose - a life of faith or one that is comfortable? Faith costs you something. Sometimes it is money, sometimes it's giving up things, sometimes it's losing friends. It's choosing God even when it doesn't make sense. How many people really believed it was going to rain when Noah was slaving away to make an ark? Who would believe that God would tell Abraham to sacrifice his son? What about Sarah? How many people really believed she was pregnant until she actually had Isaac?

I think about Joseph in the Bible. He was a great man of God. One difference between his life and Moses' is that Joseph chose to make the most of the circumstances he was in. He didn't choose to become a slave, his brothers made that decision for him, but he was faithful to God even in the difficult situation. Moses chose the difficult situation.

I want to look more and more like Jesus. Perhaps to some people my actions will look foolish. That's okay, as long as my Heavenly Father looks down and smiles, I will be as crazy as He wants me to be!

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