Heart Choices

Israel was a nation under oppression and persecution from their Egyptian tormentors. God heard their cry and their groaning and sent Moses back in to Egypt to set them free (Acts 7:34). Through an extraordinary sequence of miraculous events they left Egypt and began the journey to their Promised Land. But once they had left Egypt they began to complain. Even though they had been severely persecuted in Egypt, they missed the comforts of their former way of life and hankered after the things that had been left behind.

Having left Egypt they faced the challenge of walking in obedience to the Lord under the direction of Moses until they reached their destination and fulfilled their destiny as the chosen people of God. But obedience didn’t come easily to a people who, because of hardships became rebellious in nature, resisting their leader and opposing God. The end-result of opposing the plans and purposes of God is never good. Eventually every one of this rebellious generation died before the next generations entered the promised land under Joshua’s leadership.

Many is the time when I have had to listen to the heart cries of those who had done exactly what the people of Israel did under Moses – they went back to the things they had escaped from. The desires of the carnal nature overwhelmed their spiritual desire to follow after God and walk in His ways. Their heart choices became their undoing.

The writer of Hebrews says “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7). He goes on to remind us that God’s people were not able to enter in to the land God had prepared for them because of their unbelief. I pray that today’s Scripture will encourage you not to fall in to the same trap of disbelieving the promises of God for the future and allowing the temptations ‘of Egypt’ to rob you of God’s promises being fulfilled in your life.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that you have a land of destiny for each one of us to enter. I pray that you will forgive me for the mistakes of the past. Help me, Lord, not to hanker after the things of the past and so miss out on Your best for my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.