A Call To Worship

...but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.

 

Exodus 6:9

It is very difficult to lead when those you are leading believe they have been mistreated and have lost all hope. Such was the case when God called Moses to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt—they had lived under many years of oppression and slavery. Yet God heard their cry and He sent someone to bring them out of slavery, "so that they might worship God" (See Ex. 8:1)... interesting that God didn't say, "to serve Him."

 

Above all else, God desires our worship.

 

A person cannot enter into true worship of God while still in slavery to bondage. In Proverbs, the writer tells us "hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Proverbs 13:12a). There is a place in life where life becomes so discouraging and hopeless that we lose all hope, and it can actually make us sick—it brings you to the edge of despair. In this particular cause, the people would not listen to Moses and God did not deliver them immediately from their slavery to bondage and despair. In fact, it would be many plagues later before ultimate deliverance would take place.

 

Why does God withhold deliverance at times?

 

It is in order to bring greater glory from the situation, and not because He doesn't care. It is because His plan for mankind is resting in these events. It is a finely tuned plan that involves many people and situations—all operating at the same time. It can seem cruel at times, but God knows that His children cannot worship Him if they are in bondage and lose all hope. And He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, so He has a plan of deliverance for each of us, when we find ourselves in such circumstances.

 

God has a plan of deliverance for each of us.

 

This plan is not always the kind of deliverance we might think is best. It sometimes has pain surrounding the deliverance. When a mother gives birth, that child is delivered into this world through much pain. But with that pain comes great joy is on the other side. Every mother will say the pain was worth it because of the exceeding joy that child brought in the midst of the pain.

What keeps you from entering true worship… ask God to show you the areas of bondage that you are living in so that you may worship Him and Him alone.