Daily Devotional

In the past as I have read through this passage of Moses going up on Mount Sinai I have always been a little critical of the Israelites impatience with waiting for him to come back down. They had just seen the Lord part the Red Sea, why did they think He would quit taking care of them? But this time I thought about how long he was gone, 40 days and 40 nights.
 
I noticed that it wasn't only the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai during that 40 days and nights. He gave him a huge amount of important details on how to judge the Israelites, the sanctuary design and understanding of sin offerings.
40 days and 40 nights doesn't seem like that horribly long a time but the Israelites had relied on Moses for leading them and telling them what God was saying. Even Aaron got the messages he relayed to Pharaoh from Moses. So when Moses was gone for so long, and they had no one to tell them what God was saying, they assumed he was dead and they got scared. Fear has a way of taking our mind off of trusting God and trying to come up with our own solutions.
 
Recently I was involved in a conflict situation. Truthfully, I hate conflict and would readily choose to try to fix it by just saying I'm sorry and hope it will go away, rather than try to talk it out. This time I did talk it out but there was still an aspect of it that involved waiting. My first reaction was to fret, and my thoughts went to, "How am I going to fix this now?!" My stomach was in knots and my spirit was sad and worried. But then I thought, "I need to pray (Duh)! Jesus knows and I need to take it to Him." So I did.
 
I was fortunate, God didn't take 40 days and nights to "fix" my problem, but I was still tempted to try to do it my way. And that way was only causing fear and worry.
"Lord, you know what is going on, and you know the hearts of those involved. Help me to trust you to fix it. Show me if there's anything more for me to do," As the words came out of my mouth the peace of God that passes all understanding began to flood my heart and my spirit was filled with hope.
 
Now, did I still want to try to fix things? Yes, but each time those thoughts came into my mind I prayed again and continued to receive that peace and hope. Eventually what needed to happen came about naturally, in God's timing and His way.

So, I'm learning not to be so critical of the Israelites. And I want to learn their lesson without their consequences. God has a plan, He has details He needs to convey and I need to give Him time to do His work. But, He is with me in that waiting and I can have peace and hope if I go to Him.
 
We Are Not Alone
^{Words & Music by Pepper Choplin}
We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone
God is with us

We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone
God is with us

We are never alone
For God is with us
We are never alone
For God is with us now
Through all our days
Always forever and ever
We are never alone

And God will make us strong
For God is with us
We we will press on
For God is with us now
Through all our days
Always forever and ever
We are never alone

We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone
God is with us

We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone
God is with us

Our God is with us now
^{2005 by Harold Flammer, a division of Shawnee Press, Inc}

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.