Worshipping God Is a Wild Thing

Exodus 8:28

Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

How about that Pharaoh! He had some kinda nerve, now didn’t he? Seems like he seriously believed his own press, (or papyrus), thinking he was god because that’s what folk believed, and that is how he was raised. He loved thinking that he owned Moses (who was raised as his brother) and the Israelites, and it stroked his ego to think that the Israelites owed him for their very existence. His response to the mandate “let my people go” was to offer a tepid permission to let the people offer sacrifices to God in the wilderness, but they couldn’t “go very far.” Not only was he trying to impose his authority on God, but he thought he could also command a blessing, by telling Moses “Now pray for me.” That’s some serious arrogance!

But are we any different? We impose limits on how and when we pray. We go to church, and we might wave our hands or stand up when something the preacher says strikes a chord. But we look askance at the brother or sister who shouts too loudly, or runs crying to the altar to pray. Some preachers even get impatient if the shouting goes on too long. After all, they have time limits for worship services. The preacher is the local boss, and his time limits have to be respected. You can come to church, but “not go very far.”

Worshipping God is a Wild Thing

But worshipping God is a wild thing. The things of the Lord are deep and truly higher than the Heavens are above the Earth. It’s foolishness to think that we can abandon ourselves into the vastness of His presence and remain totally in control of what we see, say, and do. There are many Christians who serve Pharaohs that tell them: “Go this far and no further.”

Don’t Be Your Own Pharaoh

Then there are Christians who are their own Pharaoh. How many times has your inner spiritual police kept you from sharing your testimony? How many times have you told yourself you don’t have time to pray, or when you do, no more than 5 minutes at a time? How many times have you failed to heed your own advice after you tell yourself “I really need to remember more Bible verses?” How many times do we do all of the above, and then go to church and tell someone, “Now pray for me?”

Dive In!

You do well when you go to church. You do well when you read your Bible and pray. You do even better when go don’t put internal brakes on how far you can go. If you’re like me (seriously uptight), you might have a problems with going where the Lord wants you to go, and saying what He wants you to say. Look at what happened to John the Baptist, and the disciples of Jesus. “The world is a dangerous place,” you say. “They kill Christians out there.” True. Or on the less severe tip, you might say something like “If I don’t go along, they won’t like me at work. I might lose my job. My spouse won’t understand. Neighbors will think I’m strange…” True dat. But isn’t that the point? Job said: Though He slay me, still I trust Him (Job 13:15). Now that’s wild faith. Jesus said, “not My will, but Thine be done.” That’s wilder still. If we stop to try and guess where the Lord wants us to go, and then decide ahead of time whether or not we’ll like it (and therefore whether or not we’ll obey…). If we go about serving God like that, we’ll miss out on the Great Commission. We miss out on the great adventure, and we miss the mark. Which is to say, we sin. Ouch!

God’s Plans for You Are Good

I don’t know what plans the Lord has for you. It just might be that you don’t either. But this one thing we know: God loves us, and His plans for us (whatever they are), are good: Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) says: