What you leave, will try to drag you back.
If you leave wise living, foolishness will drag you back.
If you boldly leave drugs, drugs will boldly come after you. If you leave alcohol, alcohol will find you. If you leave sexual addiction, that will hunt you down. If you leave old party friends, they will come try to get you to party with them again.
If we are used to doing other things on Sunday besides going to church, those other things will jump on chariots and run over you as you even think about getting ready for church.
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up,
and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and
cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there
were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you
done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in
Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better
for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Exodus 14:10-12
We have a tendency to want to go back to what is familiar. Our human tendency is to make a base, battered, beaten, bitter, bottomed-out, cry, “Let me serve old masters.”
Eating French fries was better than eating Brussel sprouts.
My old party friends were better than my new hearty friends.
My old job was better than my new school.
Running and hiding was easier than facing and working through conflict.
The way we used to do church is better than the way we do church now.
Working was better than retirement.
Drinking alcohol was easier than drinking responsibility.
All a cop out — but God doesn’t want us to drop out.
13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
One thing the fighting, overcoming, forward-moving people of God know and must rely on when God is leading us to new places that only he know the way to:
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Thrive! 