Exodus 19:3-6 "As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” Today's episode talks about how important it is to listen to God and keep His covenant if we want to be His special treasure, and who doesn't want that? It also talks about how God shows us little and sometimes big signs that He is there in it with us. We just have to be on the lookout for them! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Be Still & Listen
Exodus 19:3-6 "As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
One of my friends sent this verse in a Facebook messenger chat. Her mother just had heart surgery and she is in the hospital with her waiting for her to recover. Her mom’s levels were all elevated and she needed to go onto a breathing machine. I am sure my friend was worried for her mom and I am sure the mom was worried too. I met this woman in my mentoring group. We went on retreat together. Everyone in our mentoring group picks a word and mantra for the year. This is just a way to help keep us focused on where we want the year to go and help us remember what is important to us throughout the year when things get busy. Life can happen so quickly sometimes that we don’t live it intentionally we just get swept up in it and almost go on autopilot. There can be so many people or things calling our time and it can get hard to prioritize if you don’t have a focus and/or you don’t priorities.
This is why we pick a word and mantra and try to say it every day. I was going to say that we do say it everyday, but I am sure we forget sometimes, or at least I know I do, especially on the weekends. However, even if I don’t say it everyday, I know I have one, I have it memorized and so when I have to make a decision about something I can think about that word and mantra in my head and then the decision is easy because usually only one aligns with my focus for the year.
My friend chose the words “Be Still” this year. It’s funny how when we pick a word, God helps us grow into that word over the year. It’s the same with you, even if you didn’t pick a word. If you have a desire in your heart, or if you have prayed for help to grow in a certain area, God will help you. When we pick a word it not only reminds us of how we want to grow over the year, but it is also the filter with which we look at the year. Let me explain what I mean. If my friend’s word is Be Still, then her focus is on being still and how she can learn to grow in that. So, when she is reading her Bible in the hospital next to her mom and she gets the Bible verse above, she then looks at this experience in the hospital as a reminder to be still.
God is amazing! If we are looking, if our eyes and ears are open, he will give us little signs, and sometimes big signs that He is right there with us in all of our situations or circumstances. This bible verse in the hospital was a little reminder from God to my friend to just Be Still and that He was taking of it all for her. If you are aware that God does this, if you are on the lookout for this, you will see that He is doing the same for you. God is not just doing this for some of His children. He is sending us all signs that He is there with them. The problem is if we don’t know that He is doing this, then we don’t notice them when we see them. Let’s start being on the lookout for these messages from God letting us know He is in it, all of it, with us!
I love how today’s verse begins with God reminding us what He has done for us in the past. It says, “As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me.” This is a great reminder that God is a miracle worker. He saved the Israelites from Egypt is a miraculous way. Also, it wasn’t just one miracle, it was miracle after miracle. He did all those signs to convince Pharaoh to let them go. He parted the Red Sea so they could pass, then He rolled it back to destroy their enemy. He miraculously provided manna for food every single morning. He rained down quail on them when they complained about not having meat to eat. It was miracle after miracle.
When we are struggling, we need to be reminded of all God can do. There are so many times when we are in a situation and we can’t see a way out. We have $500 worth of bills and $200 in our bank account. That math does not add up and we know that we will not be able to pay our bills. And yet the math also did not add up when Jesus only had 5 loaves of bread and two fish and there were over 5,000 people to feed and yet He fed them all with plenty to spare. When our loved one is in the hospital or on hospice and the doctors tell us there is nothing to do, we need God to remind us of what He has done in the past, so that we can have hope that we don’t have to worry because even if there is nothing the doctors can do, there is ALWAYS something our God can do. I love that God knows we need this reminder, even before we do. He is so good!!
The second half of this verse is, “If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” This is also great because it is reminding us that we are special. God could choose any person on the entire Earth, and yet He is choosing you. If we listen obeidiently to what He says, and keep His commandments then we will be set aside. We will be His holy nation. How great is that? I love that this translations says we will be His special treasure. What would you give to be God’s special treasure? I feel as though I would give anything to be considered God’s special treasure. God is giving us the instructions and although they seem easy, they can be harder than they sound.
The first thing it says is to listen obediently. It can be hard to listen if we aren’t hearing Him. This means we need to spend some time listening to what God is telling us. Let’s all stop for a moment and see when we could do this? When could we make time, even if it's just 5 minutes, in our day to sit quietly and listen to the God? Could you make 5 minutes sometime in your day to sit quietly with God if it meant you got to be His special treasure? The other thing God is asking us to do is to keep His covenant, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart my and soul and to love your neighbor. Can we do that? What is one thing we can do to love others more? God doesn’t just mean your neighbor next door. He means, how can you love everyone, even those you don’t like.
That is something to spend some time pondering. Is this dislike, is this hatred I have in my heart for others worth not being counted as God’s special treasure? If you have a hard time loving others, take that to God. Spend some time talking with God and asking Him to help you through it. God wants us all to be His special treasure. We don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to follow Him perfectly, we just have to really want to be His special treasure with our whole heart, and then listen to Him and He will guide us there. He wants it for us more than we want it for ourselves. We just have to give Him permission to work within us and then let Him gently guide us there!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask you to show each one of us where in our day we can spend some time with you. I ask you to show everyone that we all have the time, even if we are very busy. Show them that you can talk to them anywhere, in the shower, in the car, while they are drinking coffee, while they are doing housework, anytime we are willing to listen, you are willing to talk. Lord we thank you for always reminding us at the perfect time of all you have done in the past. Lord, we are sorry we always forget and are so grateful when we need to remember, you are there. Lord, I want to keep my friend’s mom and my other friend’s father in law in our prayers today as they are who you put on my heart while writing this episode. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk Boldly with Jesus. In case you were all wondering, my parents 60th wedding anniversary celebration went great! Their love was definitely celebrated by many. The celebration continues as my parents, most of my siblings and I all head to Maine for a vacation together. I am not sure we have all vacationed together since we were little. If you were moved to find time in your day when you can listen to God and yet feel your schedule is too buys, I want to offer my audio training on how to invite Jesus into your every day activities. It is not that long and will just give you a few ideas of how you can increase your time with God and yet, not add more things into your buys schedule. Just a reminder if you don’t see an episode from me any day this week it is because I am hanging out with family and will be back next week. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed week!