“And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” (Exodus 14:15) How many believers sit around and weep, how many bemoan their circumstances, many, if not most, have placed themselves in by allowing incidences and temptations to grab hold of their attention and drag them away from a right relationship from the Lord. Moses had already prayed, he had made his supplications known to the Lord, it was time to act, not time to pray again.
How many people do you know that are addicted to pornography, to food, to the news, their job, to their anything, that keep praying for the Lord to deliver them, but that is all they do, they lift not one finger to stop the onslaught, they want God to just take it away. This I believe is the action of most who seek His face in these matters, they complain but do not act, pray, do it again, pray, do it again, as if they are waiting for the part of them that seek these desires that they know are not pleasing to the Lord to just automatically be lifted away, and when they are not over time, they simply just start to call them a burden, a cross they must carry. Ridiculous in the extreme. “Get off your knees Moses and tell the people to move forward.”
I am sure many of you are thinking of 1 Cor. 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,” but you just can’t seem to find the way out. If you are addicted to internet porn, and please do not say can’t stop, say won’t stop here, then throw your computer and cell phone away, problem solved. Oh, but now the excuses come, don’t they, “But I need them for” fill in the excuse sheet here. “That man at work and I are beginning to have an emotional relationship that if God doesn’t do something I will sin against Him and my husband.” Quit your job. “But then what will I do, I can’t just quit, oh Lord, please….” That’s right, do not use any initiative of your own, don’t do the necessary items to remove yourself from whatever it is that is drawing you away from Christ, just wait for Him to provide some so-called miracle so you won’t have to be the one to blame when you fall, so you can say, “The serpent beguiled me,” or perhaps you can even blame God for not fixing the mess that you put yourself into and say instead, “The woman that thou gavest me.”
No, we would not want to be held accountable for our own actions, would we, we would not want to deprive ourselves of what we know we enjoy so much, that season of sin (Hebrews 11:25) that is more than exciting, the anticipation of it alone is enough to wield power over us, we’ll handle the grief, resentment, and frustration afterwards, besides, all I need to do is keep praying and sooner or later the Lord will remove it, I don’t need to be accountable at all, it’s not my fault that I can’t control myself.
Foolishness, these individuals are either deceiving themselves or lying to themselves, they will not make any real attempt to exit through the door provided by the Lord, thy know full well where it is, it stands before them wide open, but they refuse to step toward it, they want God to just make the bad thing go away so they don’t have to deal with it anymore. The way has been provided, but the loss of the desire and the cost to them personally is not worth the movement forward.
You must realize that only the individual who knows for a fact that they are in open rebellion to the Lord, that their fellowship will not be broken with Him, but already is, that what they are doing they are not to be doing, much less enjoying, these people alone are the ones that both love and detest the life they are now living. You are the one though that must take the necessary steps to rid yourself of the sin you now find yourself in, sitting around, praying constantly for the Lord to remove whatever it is, is a copout, an excuse for you to continue, to blame God for what you stepped in. So what if they are your favorite boots, they are defiled, cast them off, so what if you have no computer or internet access, so what if you have to look for another job, you know what you have to do to escape, do it. If it bothers you so much because you love the Lord so much, then no cost is too high to regain your fellowship with Him. There, I’ve gone and done it again, I made it personal, but that is why it is called a personal relationship with Christ. Get up off your knees, He has heard your prayers, you have been shown the way out of this pit, take it.
