Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Then he said to Him,"If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.  For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth."  So the Lord said to Moses,"I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name."  And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."                                                              Exodus 33:15-23

Have you ever been in a place desiring to see God in all His glory in the midst of your circumstances but you were stuck in the in-between, wedged in, unable to move, just waiting to see how God was going to move next?  It’s so not a comfortable place to be.  If you’re like me the first thing you want to do is see how you can get out of it in which sometimes that involves kicking, screaming, resisting, and scrambling to make better of the situation and try to fix it yourself, but that won’t help because you will still find yourself in a holding tank.  As we read in the above verses, Moses is asking God for reassurance that His presence will go with him as he departs with the children of Israel.  We ask “Good grief…doesn’t Moses already know God is with him? Was it not God who burned with presence in the bush telling Moses that He would certainly be with him (Ex. 3:12)? Was not God’s presence there when He instructed Moses to lift his rod and stretch out his hand over the sea to divide it so that they may pass through to the other side (Exodus 14:16)?  Was not God’s presence there every morning as He provided manna for him and the children of Israel to eat (Exodus 16:21; Psalm 78:24-25)?”  But, here we see Moses (BTW, just after God promising Moses His presence would be with him) telling God “Look, God, I’m not going anywhere without You”.  Not that this is a bad statement – it’s definitely good – but it’s like gosh Moses what more do you need to make it more obvious that God’s presence is already with you.  But see how easy it is to sit here and pass judgment on him when we do the exact same thing ourselves???  How many times do we face circumstances when we’re like “Oh no God, I’m being pressured, smothered in on this one…this is too much I can feel the walls closing in. I can’t breathe.  I can’t sleep. I can’t eat.  I think I’m just going to find a corner somewhere, devour a 10 pound bag of peanut M&M’s and say over and over again to myself “Just think happy thoughts, just think happy thoughts, just think happy thoughts…”.  I can’t feel You. I can’t sense Your presence in this situation. Where is Your presence Lord?  About a month and a half ago I was driving home from work on I-395 aka “blood alley” and while I was just getting into the left turn lane on Luna Road I heard the noise of crashing metal and saw car parts flying in the air.  A lady had run the red light and T-boned a pick-up truck.  In the moment of impact both the cars spun off each other and were both coming head on in my direction.  All I could do was sit, watch, and grasp the steering wheel.  There was no reaction time to get out of the way all I could do was sit and wait…wait to see how this was going to end.  Before my very eyes, literally a few feet away from me, both cars parted and I had Red Sea experience; God showed me His presence was there with me.  The truck had completely cleared and went to my left while the car went to my right just scratching and scuffing my fender.  God’s glory was shown to me that day while being caught between a rock and a hard place.  God said to Moses “You want to feel my presence? You want to see my glory through this?  Then I’m going to place you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand.”  And so He says the same to us,  “You may get dirty, you may get uncomfortable, you may feel like you can’t breathe, or even that there should be a better way, but when I pass by you, take away My hand, you will see My glory.” 

Are you stuck between a rock and a hard place?  Child of God know this:  He loves you.  And even though you’re in this tight spot, His hand is covering and shielding you as He is preparing to reveal His glory to you and even to those around you (Exodus 34:29). 

Awaiting His Glory,

Audra 

Trapped in Your Sin?

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, 
brings forth death.

James 1:13-15

Sooooooo…there’s this squirrel.  Recently there have been very suspicious things happening in my garage and one by one they were all pieced together.  It started with me finding Jill (my stored away holiday scarecrow) knocked down in the garage so I stopped…looked at it…and go, “Hmm, how did that fall down?” So, I pick it up and put it back in its right spot and…I carry on. Then, over the course of a week, I realize things like areas of leaf piles here and there, disarrayed bouquets of my dried out rose petals scattered on the ground, little paint bottles knocked over, and a little bitty whole in the side of the garage(which is stopped up normally) is exposed.  So, as I look around and see these things happening I go “Hmm” and I carry on. But, then….one fateful Tuesday morning as I’m making my running dash out the door to open the garage and get off to work my feet come to a screeching halt and my mouth opens with a squeal (Squeal:  a short high cry expressing pain or other strong emotion) and I’m stopped dead in my tracks.  Lo and behold I am not alone for out of the corner of my eye something darted across the garage floor!  And within a 10 second span I have this conversation in my head: 

“What was that?” 

“I have no idea!”

“Should I attempt to go 5 feet from the garage door to the car and risk being attacked?”

“Go for it - you can make a running attempt, after all you can’t be late to work!”

So I ran for the car jumped in and left in hopes that the little creature made its way out.  So over the course of the week I tried to forget about it and not seeing any new signs of messes I figured it was gone until…my mom, the key witness who identified it as being furry tailed, had a run in with it just a few days later.  As each day passed by I found some new and old things it was doing around the garage like scratching up drywall and continually exposing the whole in the wall. But wait, oh yes, wait – there’s more!  One morning my little furry tailed pest had made its way into the attic and was scratching above my closet.   This is it-it’s on now!  I shouted up to it “I’m gonna find you and when I do I’m going to kill you!” Harsh? Okay, maybe…sorry animal lovers.  No, my intent wasn’t to kill it but to trap it!  To trap a pesky squirrel one must lure it in the cage with an alluring feast - a feast consisting of peanut butter, salty potato chips, and of course peanuts ;) 

Soooooo….there’s this squirrel.  As pesky and irritating as it has been trying to trap it - it has been a visual illustration to me from the Lord.  You see, I just “so happened” to be finishing up a study that I had been doing with our high school girls in which it was talking about being trapped in your sin.  We read in James “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” We just like this squirrel can find ourselves in places where we don’t belong whether it be where our feet take us, what our eyes look at, what our ears listen to, or even the places we go to in our minds.  We initially enter into traps with  curiosity, stumbling into, poking around, getting into things that we shouldn’t be in, all in the meanwhile affecting others in the things we do (sin has a way of doing that – it not only affects you but also affects those around you).  We’re drawn away by our own desires.  Temptation in and of itself is not a sin; when you give into temptation then it becomes a sin.  When you continue to poke around you’ll eventually become trapped.  How? Just like the squirrel in order to trap it, it must be lured in.  I have to put something out that smells good for food and is pleasant to the eyes (Gen 3:6-7) that will do the job of drawing it in.  We work the same way.  If sin appeared ugly and nasty we probably wouldn’t go near it.  But because sin is pleasurable for a season (Hebrews 11:25) and appears great, it is very easy to get lured in and trapped in it if we don’t take the way of escape that God offers (1 Cor. 10:13).  As children of God, He gives us a way of escape when we are tempted and we must flee away from it quickly.  If we don’t and choose to be drawn away by giving into temptation, we will eventually find ourselves trapped in our sin, locked in a cage, awaiting either death (Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”) or to be set free from it (1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” and Rom 6:22-23 “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”)  You see, on one end we can see the enemy wanting to see us remaining to be trapped in our sin and left to die but on the other end we can see God desiring to set us free through the blood of Christ and giving us a new start.  God loves you.  He loves you so much that He doesn’t desire to see you caught up and trapped in your sin. Whom the Lord loves He chastens (Hebrews 12:6) and He will do whatever it takes to get your attention.  Don’t learn the hard way next time; when tempted take the way of escape.

I lift an anthem of praise to You, God, for always providing a way of escape from sin.  I know I can stand on the truth that I can do ALL things through You who strengthens me while knowing at the same time that apart from You I can do absolutely nothing.  Please help me not to drawn away by my own desires but to submit myself completely to You out of my love and devotion to You.

Don’t be a Squirrel,   

Audra