Week 23: Day 4

Intro: Hello, my name is Damilola, welcome to today's Orbit devotional.

Bible: Today we're going to be in Exodus 4 across verses 27-31. I’ll read.

The Lord said to Aaron, ‘Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.’ So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped.

Thoughts: This is one of my favourite passages. In this story, I find it really beautiful. Moses and his brother Aaron are together, and then they go before the people. And there's this moment of recognising the truth and the power of God. What comes just before it, though, is Moses and God are in a bit of a spot, and Moses is insistent that this task is too big for him to do, God reminds him of his power. But again, and again, Moses says, I just don't feel up to this. And so in the midst of it, God says, Okay, I've provided a support for you, your brother, your big brother, is coming to see you, and you guys should go on into this mission that I have for you together, both of you together should be part of letting my people go from Egypt.

And we see a beautiful truth and reality in this story. As you and I follow God, as we follow Jesus, and try and seek daily to become more like Him. We need the support of other people, other Christians, and doing that. I know for myself, when it's come to doing the things that I know God wants me to do, which sometimes involve turning away from what other people around me want me to do, or what's fashionable amongst people are at a certain time, I have found it so helpful, to have other people in my life who know and love Jesus, who can be there to encourage me to live out the life that he's called me to live.

And as this has happened, for me, God's also given me the opportunity to be this kind of friend to other people to be there to support them, to encourage them to be a shoulder to lean on, shoulder to cry on, but also somebody to rejoice with, and to share the good times with as we seek to take part in God's mission, his story in the world, what Jesus is doing by His Spirit on the earth today, it's vital that we have people in our corner who also know and love Jesus, who we can journey with.

So today's question is, who’s God called you to journey with? Who's God called to be your friend, and who is he called you to be friends to? It's so important as we go on in our faith, that we have the right people around us. So let's pray and ask God to make us the kinds of people that help and strengthen other believers and also that we would have other Christian friends to be with us as we go on this path to becoming more like Jesus. Let's pray.

Prayer: Father, thank you for this beautiful relationship between Moses and Aaron. Thank you, Lord, that friendship and family are your idea that you don't want us to be alone by ourselves, but that you've set us in families and in different friendships and relationships, so that we can have others to support us and people to support. Lord Jesus, I thank you, that you want us to learn things about you from each other. And so, I pray that you'd help us all to have good friends that can help us in becoming more like you, and that you would help us be the kinds of friends to other people that would see them develop more strongly in your image. Pray this, in your name. Amen.

Challenge: Now, I imagine that there are one or two people that come to mind that are your people that God's given you, as Christian friends that you can go on this journey together with, so I want to encourage you to pray for them. If you have friends like that or if you don't, why not take this as an opportunity to pray for some. But if you do have friends that encourage you in your faith and help you become more like Jesus, why not take a moment to pray for them, and you can even write them a little note just telling them that you're thankful for their friendship, and that you are happy that you can be friends to each other that can help each other become more like Jesus.

Outro: Thanks for listening. Goodbye.