Exodus 5:18-23 – “Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all”. At first the Israelites where so use to their current condition that they could not see any miracles that could come. It took a leader and someone that had faith to help them come out of their situation. If Moses would have stayed in the comfort zone then God would have passed him over and picked someone else to lead the Israelites. It is understandable that Moses was at first confused and afraid. However, he quickly followed and obeyed what God was telling him to do.

If you feel that Jesus is calling you to do something then instead of just fearing, get down on your knees and ask for him to help you. Jesus will open up the doors if you trust and lean on him. There are times that we think we hear Jesus when we don’t. One day I was out walking because I thought Jesus said that there would be money on the ground so I walked and walked. I sighed and went back in. Later that day I got some money in the mail that I was not expecting to get and I was shocked. I knew that I was going to be getting money because I had faith but I did not seek Jesus and if I would have just asked him I would have known not to go out and walk for so long and neglect the chores that needed to be done. When you make mistakes and jump to conclusions ask for forgiveness and learn from it. Don’t let that be the cause of you not going back out again. While you are on your knees don’t forget to praise God and remain humble when you are being called to serve the Lord.

It is easy to start taking things for granted such as the Israelites did when Moses led them out of Egypt. At first he feared how he would feed them but then they started getting manna from Heaven. In Exodus 16:15 “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” God provided for them and as a result they got spoiled by the miracles. People think that you can get spoiled only by money, good clothes and other things but that isn’t so. The poorest of poor can still become spoiled and take things for granted. This will cause us to not be grateful for anything that we have. Pride can start dwelling in our hearts when we become spoiled. When pride starts coming up terrible things can happen. Job 40:12 -”Look at every proud man and humble him, crush the wicked where they stand.”

John 5:44 – “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” That is exactly what starts happening when pride comes in our hearts. We neglect praise and thanksgiving because we start boosting to one another. How did the children of Israelites boost to one another? I am sure that they said things such as “We know it’s going to come, it always does!” or “We are never going to go hungry.” Instead they should have been saying “Praise God for the manna” or “Praise God, he always looks after us in our time of need.”

So while you are battling are even when things are going good still Praise the Lord despite whatever is going on. Show appreciation by just making simple statements of “Praise God for this battle”. When you start to praise him and show appreciation you will be amazed at how different you will feel.