Daily Devotion, July 26, 2020

Devotion: Read Exodus 14:10-15.

God knew exactly what was happening there by the Red Sea, and God was about to save the Israelites in such an incredible way that they would pass the story along to the next generation and the next for all of time! But for God to act, they needed to stop crying out and get moving! Sometimes, I think God says, “You’ve prayed, and I’ve heard your prayers. Enough! Now, get moving!”

A few years ago, one of my brothers shared with me how he had started a new evangelism visitation ministry in his church. He was pleased with the number of people who signed up to do the visits, and he got them all together one Sunday afternoon for training. The training went well, and he began pairing them up to make their first visits the next week. He was surprised when they asked if he could give them some more training instead of them making visits just yet. Disappointed, but knowing this was new for them, he scheduled a second training session. When he finished the second session, exactly the same thing happened. “We can’t go out yet, we need more training!” Training is good, planning is great, and praying is essential; but God expects us to get moving so God can use us in incredible ways.

Adult Challenge:

When we pray, remember that God knows our situation long before we speak it in prayer. Knowing this should help us spend more of our prayer time listening to God and letting our prayer be a conversation with God. And when we do that, sometimes God challenges us or changes us in some way. Sometimes God even has something for us to do. God may answer our prayer by sending us out to do the thing we asked God to make happen. 

Youth Challenge:

I think sometimes we ask and pray for things, but don’t always like the path to get there. Change and freedom often takes us through difficult and scary times. It can be easy to not want to face those things and to go back to our old ways. Although they fought him most of the time, Moses was their leader and helped (sometimes forced) them forward. Who do you have in your life like Moses who can help lead you through the tough and scary times?

Children's Challenge:

FOOT FROLIC:

Each person can trace their feet on brown or tan construction paper. Then cut out the feet and glue onto a piece of blue construction paper and write words from today's passage so that everyone can remember to walk where GOD wants them to walk and HE WILL PROTECT them always.

“And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him . . . “ Exodus 14:31 (NIV)