Out of Egypt

 

 

"For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves."  Leviticus 25:42

 

Sometimes slavery is a comfort zone. Being bound to someone or something toxic is comfortable. It's all we've ever known and we don't even dream of anything else. To be released from slavery into something we do not know---freedom---is foreign. We are afraid to wander in the wilderness though we are free. The wilderness of freedom is a foreign land and slavery to pharaoh is familiar.

"Then Moses reached his hand out over the Red Sea. All that night the Lord pushed the sea back with a strong east wind. He turned the sea into dry land. The waters were parted. The people of Israel went through the sea on dry ground. There was a wall of water on their right side and on their left." - Exodus 14:21-22

The path from the slavery that binds you may seem impossible to walk, but God will make a way. Just as He performed a miracle and allowed Moses to part the red sea, He will make a dry path to walk on out of our own form of slavery.

Living in slavery is not always living as a physical slave. Slavery is living as a bondservant to sin, or allowing a toxic persons sin to permeate our lives. Cars, houses, computers, materialism, old unhealthy ways of thought and old habits are all things we can be in bondage too when they are out of balance. They become comforts of sorts and pretty soon many years have past living with this sin as our god. 

Sometimes God is seen as a weakling, unable to conquer or help us out of toxic relationships or defeat the sins in our lives. Our view of God and our own unbelief begins to permeate our life. The same God who led the Israelite's out of slavery is the same God who lives today. This same God wants to deliver us from our sin and part the red sea so we clearly see His power and His way out of sin.

Don't count on others to help lead you out of your fog, count on God. Other's may not have the discernment to help you, they do not know or see your heart and your daily struggles. Often the sins and toxic relationships are only known to God and ourselves. Sometimes we are blind to it and need the Holy Spirit to illuminate and shed His truth.

Christ shed His blood, with nails driven in His hands and feet so that we may know what freedom is. God's freedom is greater than we can imagine. We are not in bondage to sin, we are not bound to death, we are bound to Christ and His eternal life. Death and sin are conquered. He died to lead us out of the dry, barren desert of slavery to our own sin.

Yet we refuse so often---stubbornly---to let go of that which we know is sin in our life. What would life be without it? The unknown is scary. To let go of an old pattern of thought, old habits and behaviors will take hard work and dedication. The freedom of letting this all go and laying it at the foot of the cross is unimaginable to us because it requires surrender. A lifetime of living in surrender and the freedom of Christ.

Jaws are clenched and hands are holding tightly to the familiar, struggling to surrender sin. Surrendering to God and what He asks of us when we can't see what the next day holds, this is walking in freedom. We are no longer controlling what we think will be in our future---those familiar sins. Instead we are saying, "God I am here and YOU know what the future holds and I will trust, I will walk the path to the cross and I will trust you."

 God stands outside of time, the future is an easy task for Him. He holds it in His hands. He is in control, not us. The sins or toxic people we live in bondage too should not control our future or cause us to be afraid to walk out of Egypt into freedom. The Lord is already fighting for us, we don't fight against our sin alone.

Our freedom is in front of us, already bought at a price. The promised land is a few steps away, will we choose to live in it or go back to Egypt?

 "And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”