“Why would you tell me to do this? I was just being obedient, and now things have gotten worse.”
Ever felt that way before?
I have.
I have followed through on a prompting, just to have to deal with a lot of emotional pain from all the fallout.
I’ve decided to keep sticking to church standards and lost a friend because of it.
I’ve reached out and offered service, only to have a super awkward result that left me feeling frustrated.
Can’t you just hear the emotion in Moses’ voice here?
He had been asked BY THE LORD to go talk to the pharaoh and request that he let the Israelites go.
The Israelites were looking up to Moses as the prophet who would free them from captivity!
And how did the pharaoh respond?
He increased the burdens on the Israelites to the point where they couldn’t even bear them anymore.
And so Moses went to the Lord in frustration.
He did what he was supposed to do, and things got worse for everyone.
“Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)
The Lord didn’t deliver on His promise.
Or so it seemed.
Doesn’t obedience = blessings?!
It’s like that cartoon online I’ve seen tons of times—
We think that obedience to God’s commandments, revelation, and inspiration is going to lead us in a steady, straight, upward climb.
… when obedience often looks like a path filled with lots of mountains, valleys, and steep drop offs.
I’ve learned that it takes a lot of faith to believe that following promptings and keeping commandments will always work out in the long run.
Because no matter the short-term difficulties and obstacles
The Lord knows what we need to fulfill His plan.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
2 Responses
I feel that as humans here on earth, we are in a hurry to get answers and get things we want done, as it was in Moses and the children of Israeal.. They also put pressures on Moses. Moses did all he could, he prayed etc. The long and short of it all is this, ALL prayers are heard by our HF. ALL things happen on HIS time and not ours. Even when we are most obedient, all things happen when the Lord wants it to, and He is still teaching us many things during that time.
I love these thoughts! Thank you for sharing!