Exodus 24:15-18 Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day He call to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud as he went up into the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Patience is one of those things… so hard to learn it… so hard to practice it faithfully in our daily walk. It’s one of of those things I truly wish we didn’t have to learn — but God requires it of us! As I was reading through this passage again in Exodus, it dawned on me that Moses sat on the mountain for six entire days before the Lord spoke to him. He had to patiently wait for the Lord for six days!
So often we think we can just do as we please with our lives and then come running to God for a few minutes of prayer and get an answer right away but I don’t believe it is always that simple. Even Moses needed to be prepared for six full days in order to be able experience the awesome presence of the Lord! If Moses had to wait six days – then it should not surprise us if we need to wait 60 days, 60 months or even 60 years for the Lord to prepare us to receive His blessing!
The funny thing is as I’m writing this devotional, my daughter is clinging to me, insisting “Abba, hold me! Hold me now!” And I’m saying to her, “Elianna, just wait a couple minutes and let me finish writing this devotional and I will give you a treat!”
Hmmm… perhaps the Lord is saying to us today — Be patient my child, if you wait on me I will give you a treat!
Be encouraged! The Lord is preparing us for great things. Spend more time seeking Him and worshipping Him. Keep waiting at His feet. He will meet us! There’s so much work to be done.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Today's word is not Hebrew or Greek, it's Inuit! The word is issumagijoujunnainermik. When missionaries first shared the gospel with the Inuit tribes in Alaska, they couldn't find any word in the Inuit language for forgiveness. So, they took a number of Inuit words and joined them to form a new word -- Issu-magi-jou-jun-nai-ner-mik -- and it became the Inuit word for forgiveness. The individual words are "Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore."
True story! In 1940, a large and wonderful Christian family, the Rudolph's, announced the birth of their 20th baby! Though the baby was not expected to live, having been born prematurely and with polio, she defied all odds. She did live, but by the time she was four she had suffered polio, pneumonia and scarlet fever. This little girl was badly crippled with hardly any use of her left leg. While her brothers and sisters enjoyed running and playing outside, she was left confined to braces.
Near Eilat, in Southern Israel, there is a life-size replica of the tabernacle in the Negev desert, a couple hours from where we live. One particular year, as we visited and entered the Holy of Holies, the guide shared something I never heard before.
My wife used to teach Israeli dance workshops all over the world. And over the years, she has acquired a few interesting and rather funny stories of people, including herself, tripping and stumbling over each other during a class.
We've been in full-time ministry just over 20 years now, and boy, have we had our share of trials and tribulations!
Sometimes when we are in the midst of trials we start to wonder -- Lord, will it ever end? In case you haven't noticed, it doesn't. But the good news is that with each faith-testing experience, our ability to deal with these trials and tribulations becomes better and our faith grows stronger!
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted them to learn to not judge things too quickly, so he sent them each on a quest to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. He sent his first son in the winter, his second in the spring, his third in summer and his youngest in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.
A group of scientists and botanists were exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of flowers. One day they noticed through binoculars a flower of such rarity and beauty that its value to science was incalculable. But it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone had to be lowered over the cliff on a rope.