Life can sap our energy, erode our encouragement, and dampen our enthusiasm. God wants to infuse us with His presence and power. The problem is that we are not always pursuing Him. We get busy, preoccupied, self-reliant, and absorbed in the details of life, and, if we’re not careful, we will crowd God out of our lives. We need to create space and time to focus on God. We need to encounter Him.
Moses encountered God in the burning bush. God spoke to him and used him. God wants us to encounter Him, too. There are 4 lessons that jump out to me from Moses’ story that speak powerfully to all of us today.
1: We Need Our Routine Interrupted (Exodus 3:1-3)
- Routines are not all bad. However, some routines can be.
- Busyness: If we’re too busy for God and our family we’re too busy.
- Religiosity: Our faith can become mere ritual and not relational.
- Sin Cycle: Choosing to continue to live in sin.
- Family rut: Just surviving, not thriving.
- Financial or Health downward spirals: Break destructive cycles!
- Noise: No time to stop and think.
- How to break bad routines:
- Draw near (Heb. 10:22)
- Be still and know (Ps. 46:10)
- Seek God (Jer. 29:13)
- Exercise faith (Heb. 11:6)
2: We Need to Listen Better (Exodus 3:4-5)
- God speaks to us often but we don’t hear too well.
- Moses is out on the mountain alone… with his flock… and not only hears God but answers.
- Practicing Spiritual Disciplines can improve our spiritual hearing:
- Solitude (Time alone with God)
- Silence (Listening, practicing God’s presence)
- Fasting (Abstaining from food & focusing on God)
- Frugality (Living a simple, non-materialistic life)
- Chastity (Abstaining from sexual thoughts & relations)
- Secrecy (Disallowing our good acts from being known)
3: We Need to Evaluate More (Exodus 3:6)
- Socrates: “The unevaluated life is not worth living.”
- We need to follow the example set by David’s prayer in Ps. 51. It is a prayer of evaluation and recommitment.
- Consider also: Ps. 139:23-24 and Lam. 3:40.
4: We Need to Eagerly Obey (Exodus 3:7-10)
- We need to ask ourselves, “How eager am I to obey the Lord?” (Deut. 5:27; Deut. 30:20)
- Moses didn’t feel capable of doing what God wanted him to do but he still obeyed.
- Lectio Divina (“Divine Reading”) is a traditional Benedictine practice for scriptural reading, mediation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God’s Word. It reminds us of how important the Word of God really is. It consists of four steps:
- Read
- Think
- Pray
- Act – which is what we are focusing on here: ACT = OBEY
God may not appear to us in a burning bush, but we can encounter Him in many ways as we pause and pursue Him. The thing to remember is that He is eager to meet with us any day and any time! Encounter God today as you study scripture, pray, worship, serve others, celebrate Holy Communion, share in fellowship with other believers, and more.