Glory out of Bondage

Exodus 3:19-20
But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.


Bondage is a nasty place to live, isn’t it? I think we’ve all been there at one time or another, if we are not there now. God desires that we would be free from all this stuff that likes to suck our time, energy, and life. But He desires more than that. Not only does He want us to be free, but He wants to display His glory and power in the midst of our struggle for freedom - to us, as well as to those around us.

If you have never read about all the plagues God sent to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, I would highly recommend it (you can find the story in the first 12 chapters of Exodus). I am amazed at the wonders God performs not only for the sake of the Egyptians, but for the sake of the Israelites as well. I can’t imagine having been witness to such grand displays of power. It’s easy to simplify it all and think that God sent the plagues only to show Pharaoh Whom he is dealing with. But I believe there is more to it than that. I believe that God wanted to show Himself also to the Egyptians. On top of that, He wanted to remind the Israelites that the God they served was a mighty and powerful God, Who was willing (and still is) to move heaven and earth for His children.

That is what we can take away from this - we have a God that will move heaven and earth for our freedom, and He wants us to remember that. When He is walking us from our bondage into freedom, He wants us to see His mighty work in our lives, that we would marvel at what He would do for us. And He wants those around us to see it too. Maybe they won’t be able to identify God, exactly, but they will be able to see the change - they will notice the difference in us.

But God cannot display His power and glory if we do not let Him do what He must to free us from our bondage. When we get comfortable in our slavery, we refuse to let Him work, and then we wonder why we’re stuck and don’t see Him moving in our lives. We think He has forgotten us, that He will not help. We wonder why we can’t seem to move forward in our intimacy with God, when in fact He desires that we would, but we need to let Him free us first.

Let’s each of us seek God to see what areas we are stuck in. We all have our issues - some big, some small - and we must work through all of them with God, allowing Him to display His power and glory. Let’s go to God each day, starting today, allowing Him to work in us and through us to move us into freedom - a freedom to love and worship Him with complete abandon, not tied to the things of this world. And let's take a moment to remember all the chains He has loosed from us, and the glory He has displayed in our lives.