Last Week
During our last lesson, we felt the discomfort of delving beyond the superficial and entering the level of true self-analysis. We discovered that we all have different struggles that cause us to see the cosmos and its Creator differently. This is a strange place, which causes one person to ask questions that make another person feel uncomfortable. This is a peculiar place where people discover the difference between truly believing something and just engaging in activities because they are a part of your faith tradition. This is a scary place. It is also a transformative place.
Chapter 7
Introduction
People struggle with change, even when their condition is not ideal. They wrestle with taking their lives in a different direction. People suffer abusive relationships, dangerous situations, and unnecessary pain when it seems so simple to just choose a more loving relationship, a safer environment, or a solution to the pain. Why?
Are You Afraid of What You Don't Understand
John 1:9-11
9 The true Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
Exodus 20:18-21
18 All the people witnessed the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 They said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you so that you do not sin.”
21 The people stood a distance away as Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
Lessons Learned
It is said that people fear what they don't understand. The Bible seems to suggest that our greatest problem with God is that we don't truly seek to know God. We are comfortable where we are and do not want to suffer the discomfort of having what we are accustomed to shifted. Moses wasn't supposed to be the only one on the mountain. God wanted to share the commandments with all of His children. However, they were afraid of being that close to the Creator. God wanted to reveal Himself to the entire nation, but only one of His servants was really ready to leave his comfort zone and trust God to take him to his destiny. Only one.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
1. Do you ever feel God is calling you to a place to engage with Him, but that place scares you?
2. What aspects of your ministry do you outright reject because of the level of discomfort it causes you?
The Fear of Hope
What Holds You Back
Mark 9:23-25
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe,[a] all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”
Lessons Learned
The cry of the father in this text intrigues me. After he is told about the power of belief, he cries out that he believes, but also asks God to help his unbelief. It intrigues me because I often find myself in this position. I want to believe and I declare I believe, but I still long for my place of comfort. My place of comfort causes me to fear growth because that growth may cause me to have more responsibility. My place of comfort causes me to fear faith because that faith may be unrewarded. My place of comfort causes me to fear hope because that hope may be baseless. This is the spiritual tug-of-war I endure. The struggle between my desire to believe and my fear of believing. Just like the children of Israel wanted the blessings of freedom, but also wanted the false security of slavery.
However, to truly realize their destiny and enter the promise land, they had to let go of Egypt. They had to trust that manna would be provided, waters would be divided, a pillar of fire would be given, and they as a people would be delivered. They could not fear hope, they had to embrace it. They could not hate the process, they had to respect it.
THINK ABOUT IT
1. What do you have to completely release in order to truly know God?
2. WHO or WHAT is holding you back from your blessing?
3. What step can you take right now to leave that which enslaves you and enter what God has for you?
Do You Ever Want to Go Back to Egypt
Exodus 16:3
Now the children of Israel said to them, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Numbers 11:4-6
4 The mixed multitude that was among them lusted, and the children of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our life is dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.”
Lessons Learned
The Children of Israel were slaves for four hundred years. Everything about their culture for over ten generations was shaped by the reality that they were servants of the Egyptians. Freedom was not something they were accustomed to experiencing. They were so accustomed to the abuses of the Egyptian slavery system that it became normal for them. Slavery was part of their language, their education, their economy, and their government. Once they were free, they were in unfamiliar territory. They were not accustomed to having faith in God. They only knew how to have faith in the Egyptians.
The above texts reveal a time of uncertainty for the Israelites. Even though God said He would sustain them, they had never trusted a Being they could not perceive the way they perceived the Egyptians. So fearful were they of the possibility that this God would abandon them that they wished they were slaves filled with the food of their slave masters. They even went as far as to wish they had died in Egypt as slaves.
THINK ABOUT IT
1. Have you ever felt trapped in a situation that wasn't the best for you or even abusive simply because you were accustomed to it?
2. Have you ever sacrificed true love for company or freedom for a sense of security?