Remember & Get Happy

And the people murmured against Moses saying, What shall we drink? Ex 15:24

Let's rewind to a few events immediately before this murmuring:

• God sends a deliverer to the nation of Israel who are enslaved, who cried to him for relief.


• God brings plagues of bloody water, locusts, gnats, flies, hail, dead livestock and the death of the firstborn and others, none of which touch the Israelite nation or their land in Goshen.


• God frees them from Pharaoh, severe labor and beatings.


• God sends them out of Egypt with the silver, gold and clothing of their taskmasters.


• God leads them by a Cloud by day, a Pillar of Fire by night.


• God splits the sea as 2 walls so Israel can escape their enemy and makes a wash of their enemy with the very same water. They even watch the Egyptian army wash up on the beach.

What leads a nation, or a single man, who has received so much by the grace of God to murmur against and question God's willingness to provide the simplest of things? Foolishness. To forget his blessings is to refuse his blessing. Don't forget. Remember and rejoice. And they came to Elim, where were 12 wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees and they camped there by the waters. Exo 15:27

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom 8:32. How is it daughter, son, that God will not give you all things together with Christ? What have you forgotten of His mercies toward you? Remember, receive, be happy.

Remember

A reminder that any lasting change we get comes from the root of a thing.

I have been delivered from 2 nasty habits, sugar and oversleeping, for very long periods of time which were effortless and blissful to sustain. I was happy and at peace. Then before I knew it, I was dwindling back into a place of being bound to the habits I hated so much and that caused so much pain and collateral damage. I went from No, thank you to eating cookies, candies and pop for breakfast lunch and dinner virtually overnight.. and I was confused at how drastic the change was. Again, this wasn't an exercise in will power that I lost. I was free from the urge entirely to take even a hint of sweets and I jumped out of bed in the morning.

You might say I wasn't truly delivered in the first place then. Perhaps. But I'll tell you what God showed me this evening. I'll tell you what I forgot that was keeping addiction and failure at bay. I forgot that He was the one who was doing it. For the life of me, I could not control my sweet tooth even when I'd seen it wreak absolute havoc in my body and I've been fired from 3 jobs from oversleeping. The pain is real but what was more painful was the inability to escape the cause- the inability to just, well, STOP. So when days of freedom rose out of nowhere and with no effort on my part, I was relieved and I tried to keep it going. I began TRYING to regulate my diet and TRYING to get up earlier. This freedom arrived without conscious effort, mind you, but I was compelled to sustain it, feed it, keep it going.

I see tonight that this is where it goes downhill. It's a gift dummy and God can't operate in the same room where we keep trying to run Him over or run Him out! Either He's doing the work and freedom is a gift, or I'm doing the work and bondage creeps in. I had forgotten the nights long before the freedom came when I'd said quietly, "Sugar does not rule me. Oversleeping does not rule me, God rules me." And I'd forgotten these prayers because they weren't long or arduous or time-consuming in the slightest, but the simple, effortless words you forget the next minute and with the next load of laundry. This "prayer" occupied little space in my day. We remember what we work for, but what costs us nothing we can't accept. We naturally start working for what is free and in forgetting that our freedom was finished in Him, we run Him out and chase our freedom out just as fast.

I'm not saying there is no physical work entailed with the relinquishing of certain habits. I am saying that if will-power could save a man, the whole world should be perfect because no one with bad habits, at least no one I know, really wants to be in failure. Lasting change starts with the Root, to see the work that God is doing inside of us independent of anything we can add, and in no need of anything we can do but to stay in touch with the fact that it is happening and keep that fact in view. His work in us becomes the fruit through us. RECOGNIZE Him as vine, source, supply, ability, power, strength, sap, capacity and you will be as He is without sweat-- that is the Promise. We would do well to learn how to be as puppets and we might adopt the same indomitable smile across our faces as God-made dolls.

Around the Bend

Reading the Bible straight thru has its benefits.

I am amazed at the amount of envy which goes on from creation to Joseph and his brothers, where I'm currently parked. Geese! Eve is envious of the knowledge of good and evil and goes for it, Cain slays Abel out of envy for his acceptance, Rachel and Leah, full-fledged sisters, battle for years to be more than the other in the eyes of Jacob, Isaac & Ishmael, Jacob & Esau and now Joseph. What strikes me is not the envy between all these people (although it is refreshing to see modern day issues reflected early on), but their inability to find satisfaction despite their conditions, despite relationships, despite what they had or wealth they came into.

I keep reading and I am duly noting the lack of emphasis the Scripture gives to male-female relationships, mother-child relationships and so on. Between all these people, there was much to be grateful for and satisfied with, but want for more prevailed until they met with satisfaction in God. There isn't enough in a man, not enough in a child, not enough in a land for a woman to find rest and peace. So it seems and I think modern day life bears that out when we get down to it. The only thing that really satisfies is God. If only we could turn to Him first instead of last, seek him first and not the other. Sure would save me alot of tiresome roads. I am learning that going around the bend is not a road but a circle, a detour to bring me back to the same spot where I can go down the straight road or go around the bend... again.