Exodus

I'm afraid I didn't get very far in my study time last night. I just could not keep my eyes open after getting up at 4am to go to the gym. In order to stay on track, I want to provide a couple of verses that our pastor gave us from the book of Exodus and the messages that God has for us in these verses...

Exodus 2:24-25

²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

When we are in pain, when we are struggling, when we feel alone, whatever we are going through in life, God wants us to cry out to Him and He wants us to know that He hears us. We are never alone in our difficulties if we will just give them to Jesus.

Exodus 20:2-3

² "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ "You shall have no other gods before ^a]">[a] me.

This one seems easy. Most of us don't think we worship other gods, but when we realize that other gods are anything that compete with our affection or divert our attention from the one true God, then most of us would be guilty of this. Great relationships with our spouses, children and friends are important, but they should not be put ahead of our relationship with our heavenly father. In our culture it is very easy to be distracted by making money, obtaining material possessions, achieving the perfect jeans size... I could go on and on. God's message in the verse above is: Do not let these things take your attention away from pursuing an intimate relationship with Him.

I struggle with this every day. I have a desire to be all things to all people, but what I need to be is what God wants me to be and in order to know what that is, my focus has to be on Him.