2070 Stay Desperate

0:00Congratulations. Your gift of a new day is here. Ready to live it big? You're listening to the Big Life Devotional Podcast. Now, here's Pamela to get you fired up for all God has available for you today. Well, good morning, beautiful. Welcome to a brand new day of life. Happy Wednesday, my friends. I am delighted I get to spend a few minutes of life with you today. So seriously, thank you for pressing play. Thank you for inviting me into your day. I take this so seriously like what an honor it is. I'm excited to share God's word with you today to meet you right where you're at and give you what you need for this day. Only God's Word can do that. Let's dig in the title of today's episode of the Big Life Devotional Podcast is stay desperate. Do you realize just how patient God has been with you during your wandering? He has been steady through your silence.

1:11He has stood ready to speak. When you have been unfaithful, he has remained faithful. He has always held the power to come through for you, but sometimes you failed to come to him. He can come through, but you've got to come to him time and time again. He has been patient offering grace and mercy even when it was undeserved. While God isn't giving up on you, what are you giving up in your delayed surrender and obedience? Really, what are you missing out on as you fight for your own way? Let me tell you about my great grandpa. My great grandpa was a tiny little man with the brightest blue eyes. Cecil was a brilliant businessman owning the country store in a small farming community where every local family came for supplies in the 1940s and 50s and 60s.

2:17He was much like Mr. Olson on the show Little House on the Prairie, owned in the country store. Interestingly enough, if you know the show, his wife, Bula, my great-grandmother, was much like Mrs. Olson on the show, a sharp-tongued harsh woman. But Cecil was kind, he was hard-working, but his heart was hard towards God. He refused to surrender to the Lord. He spent his whole life refusing God's way over his own. He built his wealth and his success, and he kept God at arm's length. Every Sunday morning, he would go to the church and build the fire for the church, but he refused to stay and hear God's word. He didn't have time for God or a need for God. He was successful. And at 90 years old, coming to the end of his life, my great-grandfather Cecil called the family into his bedroom, and he wept. I was a teenager. I will never forget this moment.

3:32He had regretted an entire lifetime spent without God. And that night, he finally gave his life to Jesus. And God had never given up on him. He was patient for 90 years awaiting the full heart of my great-grandfather Cecil. And now, he finally had it. As a fragile little old man, he was baptized by the local pastor with the help of my daddy. He spent the final weeks of his life leading our family in prayer. It was beautiful. But it could have been beautiful for decades instead of just two weeks. He had forfeited a lifetime of God's goodness in his stubbornness and resistance. Oh, how he wished he could go back and do it all again. Because then he would do it right. He would surrender to God sooner. Life would have been so much better for him and for our entire family.

4:41I wonder where you might be holding back on God, and one day you will wish you would have surrendered sooner. One day, you'll see how much better life could have been if you would have given it all to him. Well, you can't go back and change what has already passed. But starting today, you can do this different. Today can be your day. This is your opportunity to change every future day with your decision to seek and obey God fully. But here's what we often do. We wait for things to get so bad that we can't fix them on our own. So we cry out to God and God comes through God saves us carries us through those hard times. But then as soon as life gets better, we forget God.

5:42We hit our knees when God is our only option, but on the other side of the problem, our knees aren't on the floor. We pray to God when times are hard, but when it's easy, we withhold our heart. And what are we forfeiting in our stubbornness? What good plans of God are we sacrificing as our temporary surrender is replaced with self will and forced timing on our part? In our study of the book of Exodus, we see what happens when we are stubborn to the will of God. We see what temporary cylinder surrender leads to. It leads to temporary relief followed by destruction. In God's great mercy, he gives us chance after chance to turn to him fully, but when we refuse, he allows things to get worse. Like way worse, could things get worse? You betcha they could.

6:54Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has seen the mighty hand of God. He has heard the words of God through Moses. He's experienced destruction because of his disobedience and his hardened heart. And through the process of nine plagues by the hand of God against Egypt, we see a pattern. The pattern of seeking God's relief in the hardest of times, but as soon as relief comes, a hardened heart leads right back to disobedience. The plague of frogs, frogs, that's right, frogs is brought to Egypt by God as a sign of his power. The Egyptians are miserable and desperate because of these frogs everywhere. So here's what Pharaoh does. Exodus, chapter eight, verse eight, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. Remember, there are the representatives of God giving God's messages to Pharaoh, warning him, hey, you gotta do what God is saying here or things are going to get bad.

8:02So he calls in Moses and Aaron, and he begs, plead with the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let your people go. So then you can offer the sacrifices to your Lord. Great. Okay. Pharaoh is miserable and desperate, so he surrenders to God's will. And with that, it could all be over. The Israelites could have walked out of Egypt into their freedom and peace could have filled the land. It could be that easy, but it was never easy because the moment Pharaoh felt a bit of relief from the plague of frogs, he went right back to his old ways, verse 15. But when Pharaoh saw that relief had come, he became stubborn. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. So guess what? Things get worse, more plagues, more destruction, more problems, and now the Egyptians are facing a plague of flies.

9:12Have you ever been bothered by a fly? Like a single annoying fly that won't leave you alone can drive you crazy. And if that's a biting fly, it can turn paradise into torment. Now imagine your home being filled by flies. Imagine swarms of flies covering the ground. When Pharaoh once again becomes miserable and desperate, he surrenders to God's will. Verse 25, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. All right. He says, go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God. Here we go again. Same thing, right? Moses praised to the Lord for the flies to disappear in the next day. The flies are gone. Wow. Not a single fly remained. But then guess what? In the absence of misery and desperation, Pharaoh again becomes stubborn and refused to let the people go, as God had said.

10:23And this continues as a pattern of plagues followed by seeking God's relief. And the moment relief would come that hardened heart of Pharaoh would take back over and disobedience would follow. Every disobedience directed by that hardened heart would bring the next plague of worse conditions. And the hand of God would once again be sought. And the moment would read relief would come again that hardened heart would once again take over. It's easy to read the story of Pharaoh and Exodus and shake our head and disbelief. But my friends, we do it too. We pray to God when times are hard. And when it's easy, we withhold our heart. And what peace, what blessings, what good plans of the Lord are we forfeiting in the process? When will we stop this? When will we no longer require desperate circumstances to realize we are always desperate for God?

11:34You have the biopsy. And you await the results. Have you ever been there? Like they say, okay, we're seeing something weird on the scans. We need to take a biopsy and you are waiting for the results. And you are on your face, begging for God's touch. You call everybody, you know, pray with me, your whole family is praying, your friends are praying, your big left army is praying, we're praying, we're praying, we're praying. And the biopsy returns and it's benign, no cancer. And you are overcome with gratitude because God came through for you. But how quickly does life just return to normal? How quickly do you get busy and no longer have time for your knees to be on the floor in search of God? Without threat, you are no longer desperate for God. And it's not just a biopsy, it's the missed paycheck, it's the threatened relationship, it's the car problems, it's the forecasted storm.

12:37We seek God desperately when there's a threat, but the moment the threat passes, we're no longer desperate for God. And what we don't realize is every moment of our lives is totally dependent on God. Without His breath, we don't take our next breath. Without His hand of provision, we don't eat. Without His light, we cease to exist. We are desperate for God, but we're living as if we're not. What would life look like if you lived every moment in awareness of your desperation for God? There's a great song by Janie McDonald called desperate. It's an easy song to sing when you really feel like life is being threatened. Life as you know it may change forever and you are desperate, but this is a song we should be singing every single day in an awareness of our desperation for God.

13:45Again, the song is desperate by Janie McDonald and it says, oh God, I'm desperate down on my knees, send help from heaven because that's what I need. I'm not asking, I'm begging Lord come through for me. I need heaven and I'm desperate. Just how bad would things have to get before you call out to God in desperation? You're desperate for God, whether you realize it or not. And God in His infinite wisdom and divine mercy will allow things to get as bad as they need to get for you to realize your desperation for Him. He is more concerned about your character than your comfort. With each relief offered by God, Pharaoh would quickly return to his hardened heart and disobedience. The plague of hail comes in chapter 9. Everything is destroyed, people, animals, crops destroyed by hail.

14:49Verses 27 and 28, then Pharaoh quickly summons Moses and Aaron again. This time I have sinned, he confessed, the Lord is the righteous one and my people and I are wrong, please beg for the Lord to end this terrifying thunder and hail. We've had enough, I will let you go, you don't need to stay any longer. And guess what happens next? You're right. God comes through with relief and Pharaoh goes right back to his old ways, verses 34 and 35. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he and his officials sinned again. And Pharaoh again became stubborn and because his heart was hard, Pharaoh refused to let the people leave just as the Lord had predicted through Moses. Don't let that be you, my sister.

15:50Don't waste more time, don't go back to old ways when God brings relief, stay desperate. Psalm 63 verse 1 says, oh God, you are my God, I earnestly search for you, my soul thirst for you, my whole body longs for you. This is desperation. God desires our hearts to remain desperate for him even when the problem is resolved, even when the threat is removed, even when the misery is lifted. Don't go back to your old ways, don't return to your busy distracted ways of living, don't start living like you don't desperately need God just because life is easier again. No, girl, you desperately need him for every breath in every day. So let's stay desperate.

16:51Let's realize our dependence on God and live in full surrender to him, his way, his timing and his word. And then we can come to the end of our days without the regret of wasted days and missed opportunities. Desperation leads to surrender, surrender leads to obedience, obedience leads to blessings. Now don't let your blessings take you out of desperation for God. I bet your blessed is that going to mean that you're no longer desperate for God. What problems we self create when we are no longer desperate for God. You are desperate for God. Do you realize it? Do you live like it? Let's seek God in this. You want to pray together today? Here we go. Hey, God, well, good morning. Thank you so much for waking us up today. God, thank you for the reminder that we are desperate for you whether we realize it or not.

17:55We didn't get to wake up today without you. We don't get to breathe our next breath without you. We have nothing, not a single blessing without you. Lord, we are desperate for you. Forgive us for all the times. It is required hardship, struggle, destruction for us to realize that we need you. Today, God, we say, I am desperate. Lord, I am down on my knees, send help from heaven because that is what I need. I'm not asking. Lord, I am begging. Come through for me. I need heaven. And I'm desperate, even when I'm blessed, even when the sun is shining, even when I'm on vacation, even when the family is doing good, even when I feel good. I am desperate for you, Lord.

18:58Thank you, God, for your faithfulness, even when we are not. Help us to live better today. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, everybody. I loved our time together. Thank you so much for being here today. Have a beautiful day of life. Let's do it again tomorrow. I love you wildly. Goodbye, everybody. You are created for a big life. We'll help you do it. Join us each weekday for a new big life devotional podcast. If you're ready to dive into the big life way of living, visit our website at biglifehq.com.