God's Ways are Better than Our Ways - Exodus 14-15 and Matthew 17
These passages show us a great truth. God always has a reason for leading us to do things His way. We might not understand it at all, but His ways are always better than our ways. I pray that we will let God speak to us about this truth as we read His Word today.
God lead Israel out of Egypt in the way that led them to be seemingly trapped against the Red Sea. This led Pharaoh to change his mind and pursue them with his entire army. The people thought they would die when they realized what had happened, but Moses told them to stand still and see the salvation of God. God delivered Israel in such a powerful way that it should have caused them to trust Him completely forever, and He destroyed all of Pharaoh's army all in one action. His plan was perfect. How many of us would have chosen that way? I do not think any of us would have done it that way. We do not know enough, and we are not powerful enough. That is why we should not want to do things our way. We should praise God like Israel did after the Red Sea experience, and we should keep trusting Him each day. Unfortunately, we stop trusting as Israel did, when we have some fleshly need and we become impatient with God. We should repent of selfishness and pride, and then we should return to trusting God.
Matthew 17 teaches us the same lesson. What a plan it was to take the 3 disciples to the mountain to see Jesus transfigured. They never forgot that. It was an inspiration for them to trust Jesus for the rest of their lives. Both the healing of the demon possessed boy and the fish with the coin are examples of Jesus using better ways to teach than we would have chosen. Jesus knew that catching a fish, the first fish caught, and finding the right coin for the tax, would be a great testimony of God's power to a fisherman. He knows how to do the same way for all of us according to who we are. Let's listen to Him and trust His ways.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Exodus 16-18 and Matthew 18:1-20.
God lead Israel out of Egypt in the way that led them to be seemingly trapped against the Red Sea. This led Pharaoh to change his mind and pursue them with his entire army. The people thought they would die when they realized what had happened, but Moses told them to stand still and see the salvation of God. God delivered Israel in such a powerful way that it should have caused them to trust Him completely forever, and He destroyed all of Pharaoh's army all in one action. His plan was perfect. How many of us would have chosen that way? I do not think any of us would have done it that way. We do not know enough, and we are not powerful enough. That is why we should not want to do things our way. We should praise God like Israel did after the Red Sea experience, and we should keep trusting Him each day. Unfortunately, we stop trusting as Israel did, when we have some fleshly need and we become impatient with God. We should repent of selfishness and pride, and then we should return to trusting God.
Matthew 17 teaches us the same lesson. What a plan it was to take the 3 disciples to the mountain to see Jesus transfigured. They never forgot that. It was an inspiration for them to trust Jesus for the rest of their lives. Both the healing of the demon possessed boy and the fish with the coin are examples of Jesus using better ways to teach than we would have chosen. Jesus knew that catching a fish, the first fish caught, and finding the right coin for the tax, would be a great testimony of God's power to a fisherman. He knows how to do the same way for all of us according to who we are. Let's listen to Him and trust His ways.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Exodus 16-18 and Matthew 18:1-20.