Let us recall that it has been only about three months since the children of Israel left Egypt. They have seen many wonders by the hand of their God. They have seen Him turn bitter water sweet and rain manna and quail from the sky, yet still they doubt Him.
Here they come to their camp and they have no water. They could have looked up to their God and praised Him for being a God who could deliver them from Egypt,
could split the Red Sea,
could rain manna and quail
and could turn bitter water sweet.
They could have remembered all this and praised Him and sought Him in hopeful expectation that He would provide for them once again, but no, they didn’t. Instead they turn to Moses and grumble and complain.
They viciously turn on Moses and accuse him of setting them up to die. They always refer back to Egypt. I have to wonder how frustrated God must get with us sometimes. Why is it that when difficult times come in our walk with God we somehow think that our life before Christ was better? What a work God has before Him when He chooses to redeem us.
It is easy to bring us out of Egypt; the hard part is getting Egypt out of us. This is something that only God can do. We have not the strength or wisdom.
Now Moses has no where to go, but to his God. He seeks God’s help and God provides. God does not ask Moses to come alone. He tells him to bring the elders of Israel with him. I believe God is trying to train up these men, He is trying to teach them who He is. God wants the people to see that He is reliable, He is all-powerful, and He is their very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1).
Before we get to critical of the children of Israel let us remember that these people had been in bondage for 400 years. They had been surrounded with idol worship and false deities. God knew this and He was patient with them. I am so thankful for His patience.
God tells Moses to go to the rock and strike it and out of this rock would flow water for the children of Israel. In 1 Corinthians 10:4 we are told that this rock was Christ. Oh precious one have you drank from the rock of Christ?
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren,
that our fathers were all under the cloud
and all passed through the sea;
and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
and all ate the same spiritual food;
and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them;
and the rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Oh Father,
Thank You for Your patience. I know that when You brought me out of Egypt, out of the world, I was a mess. I know that I grumbled and complained and even doubted You, but You have been patient with me. You keep showing me Your might. You keep showing me Your power. You keep reminding me that You are indeed reliable. You have brought me water from the rock many times. You have never failed me. Please God, keep working Egypt out of me.
We are one day away from the ten day stretch to finish the race of this thirty-three day challenge. We have spent the past three weeks weeding through deception. I hope that these past few weeks have been an opportunity to pull up some if not all of the lies that had been growing and thriving inside of you by their root. I hope that it has been a time of blind eyes being opened and a time of oh’s, that’s why’s, and now I get it’s. I also hope it has been a time of training. A time of learning the right tools to keep you from falling into the snare of the enemy of our souls.
If this has been a time like that, and you have experienced freedom and you want to stay free, but you are done lying to yourself and you know you can’t do this on your own, then what you need at the very least is an accountability partner.
If you need more help… go get it. There are churches all over your area with Christian counselors who would love to be there for you and would love to be allowed to be used by God to help restore your soul.
In light of that, our focus today is accountability partners.
Day Twenty-Three
Do you want to be able to be able to say no to worldly passions?
To live a self-controlled, upright and godly life?
To be purified as God’s very own?
To be eager to do what is good?
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires
and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,
and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2:11-14
Well there you go…
The answer is GRACE 🙂
So many today think that grace is just the “Oh that’s okay… I understand… I hate the sin… but I love the sinner.” But the problem is… most of the time we really don’thate the sin.
Let me ask you?
Do you hate spiders?
What would you want someone to do if they saw a spider crawling up your back and into your hair?
Let’s say that unknown to you a spider is crawling up you back. You are just walking along in the mall lost in your own little world and then out of no where some person jumps on you and grabs you by the hair and almost knocks you out trying to get to that spider and then after the dust is settled and you, still clueless about the spider, are about ready to KILL the person for jumping on you… and then… They turn around in desperation and show the dead brown lacrose spider that was about to crawl in your ear.
Would you hit them out of anger for hurting you in the process of trying to get to that spider or would you hug them and say “oh! thank you! thank you!” ?
Now let me ask you again…
Do you hate sin?
Grace is the gateway to faith and faith is the way of salvation… Grace is power and strength and might, it is not weak and wishy-washy. Remember that it was the grace of God that put Christ on that cross. He loved the sinner so much that He showed us how much He hated the sin by the stripes on His Son… this is what it took, but God never once stopped loving His Son.
So before you go to hating someone who has clearly pointed out sin in your life…even in a not so nice way or “Christian” way… first ask yourself and ask God… are they right?
Getting the poisonous spiders out of our hair by a stranger or friend who is not going to be one of those who just stands by and watches without helping or warning, may not be fun or comfortable it might be flat-out painful… but at least they didn’t choose to sit back and watch… and then report the news after your destruction…
“well I knew it was coming, I sat right over there and watched that spider crawl right up her britches leg and up her back and that sucker headed right to her ear and then, wham, it bit her! Sure hate that it happened, but you know I ain’t one to get in someone else’s business…”
Let me ask you again?
Do you hate sin?
If the answer is yes, you need an accountability partner/partners. You need godly women in your life that you know are not afraid to get the spider out of your hair even if their methods end up shocking you or even hurting you.
Perhaps it will be a friend or a sister, a teacher, a counselor, or a mentor. While you may be tempted to look for someone who can sympathize with you, you may have more long-term success with someone who isn’t struggling herself or who has already overcome such a struggle. Hitching two weak oxen together to plow a field is not nearly as effective as hitching a weak ox with a strong ox.
~ Shannon Ethridge
When you are praying about an accountability partner you do not want someone who is in the same boat you are. Yes, it is fine to have those women,we need those women, but those ladies are your “support group” not your “accountability partners”. The support group is there to help you realize you are not alone, but if this is your only source of help, then you might just find yourself surrounded with people that only say,
“Oh girl, I know, I am right there with you, no matter what I try I just keep on falling”
Yet they never say,
“NO girl, I KNOW, you don’t have to stay here, you are stronger than that and by all means Christ in you is stronger than that, now get up on your feet and let’s go”
See the difference?
When you have a mentor who can show you how to thrive on a diet of humility, you may discover a healing change in your appetite. Remember we can not sin and win. If there is sexual or emotional sin in your life, you must starve it to death. You can’t just “trim it down” or it will just grow right back, even larger than before. Sin must be cut out completely.
Your boasting is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,
just as you are in fact unleavened.
For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7
So don’t boast about how you trimmed out some of the stuff that was causing you to fall and causing you to grieve the heart of God, when you have in full awareness chosen to hang on to the sins you “like” to much to stop…
Admit to God that you “like” this one… and get to work with that mentor, that accountability partner, get on your face before your God and ask Him to help you hate it.
He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,
And he who cares for his master will be honored.
Proverbs 27:18
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Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.
Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it
and found nothing on it except leaves only;
and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”
And at once the fig tree withered.
Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked,
“How did the fig tree wither all at once?”
And Jesus answered and said to them,
“Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt,
you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,
but even if you say to this mountain,
‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.
And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Matthew 21:20-22
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As they were passing by in the morning,
they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.
Being reminded, Peter said to Him,
“Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”
And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.
Mark 11:20-22
Here’s the bottom line… if you tend to the fig tree (sin) then you will eat it’s fruit… but if you care for your master (Jesus) then you will be honored. When you stop tending to the fig tree it will stop bearing fruit and then you will realize this fig tree was worthless all along and you can curse it and then God will destroy it from the roots up… and as you walk by faith in your God and His Christ, it will never bear fruit in you again.
Who/what are you going to choose to care for?
It’s up to you… as Jesus said… Have faith in God, and whatever you curse will be cursed.
Trust, me you can do this. Christ came that you might have life and victory.
You were born again for this!
The writing and teachings of Nicole Love Halbrooks Vaughn
