Living With Frogs

Perhaps you are like me and can remember the titles of particular sermons which have impacted you, sometimes years after hearing them. One sermon I heard many years ago was based on the verse above from Exodus 8 and was entitled, ‘Another night with the frogs.’ The preacher that night asked the question, “Why wouldn’t Pharaoh want the frogs to go straight away? Why endure their company for a moment longer than was necessary?” He looked at various possibilities. Perhaps it was just pride on Pharaoh’s part or perhaps he thought, “better the plague I know than the one that’s around the corner!” At the end of the sermon the speaker asked us, his listeners, whether there were things in our lives we knew we needed to deal with but were putting off until tomorrow, a tomorrow that never arrived.

I can still identify with the message of that sermon. There have definitely been times when I have been slow to face up to issues the Lord has been speaking to me about. A number of years ago He spoke to me clearly about my struggle with the fear of rejection. He lovingly told me that I had lived with that fear for so long it had actually become a refuge for me. He then told me that it was a prison which held me back from the joys He had planned for me. I so needed to hear those words of truth from my Heavenly Father and they helped me begin to face up to the fear which had controlled me for so long. I have to be real with you and say that it wasn’t an ‘instant fix’ and even now I still find myself working and walking through the underlying issues of self-protection and pain His words began to expose that night.

Perhaps for some of us reading this Seed today there are issues that we know we have kept off-limits with the Lord. We can understand why Pharaoh chose to live another day with the frogs. Potentially there was an even worst judgement nightmare ahead. But for God’s children there is the promise that, as we face up to issues and sin which He reveals in our lives, there will be an even greater experience of freedom and abundant life in Him. When we open a door in our heart to the Lord which has previously been locked to Him, He comes in by His Spirit to bring healing and new life, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Prayer: Father, thank You that when You expose areas of darkness and pain in my life it’s only so I can know You even more intimately. Help me to allow You to have Your way in every part of my heart. Amen.