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God hears, God sees, God knows, Believe & Worship I have heard it said that in life you are either heading into a storm, in the midst of a storm or coming out of a storm. What ever your case may be I am here to share with you that God can make a way for you.
Storms come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes storms come because of our own bad decisions (like getting behind a wheel of a car and choosing to drive under the influence). Others are brought upon us because of the decisions or choices others have made for us (like a spouse that leaves us and files for divorce), and still others seem to be no choice at all, but a hand we have been dealt in life (like getting a phone call from the doctor saying you've been diagnosed with a serious illness).
Some storms we can see brewing and coming from a long way away and others seem to come out of no where and consume and over shadow every other thing in our lives. Storms are dark times in our lives and they make it hard to see our way and some seem to last forever. Many storms in life seem impossible for us to get through.
I have come through quite a few storms in my own life and the Bible is full of stories of folks that endured storms in their lives as well. Let's look at Moses and the Children of Israel for example and their storm in Egypt.
Our story starts after Moses killed the Egyptian and ran off into the desert. The Bible tells us in Exodus 2:23-25 "Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of the bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them." (NASB)
Then God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and goes on to say in Exodus 3:7 "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings." (NASB)
Notice what the scriptures are revealing to us about God. God heard their groaning, God remembered His covenant, God saw the sons of Israel and God took notice of them. Then he tells Moses, "I have surely seen the affliction, and have given heed to their cries, I am aware of their sufferings."
God knows exactly what we are going through in our lives. He hears, He sees, He takes notice, He remembers us, He is aware of our situations. God knew what Israel was going through. He hadn't missed one thing. Not one beating, one plea for help, not one groan of their suffering went unnoticed by God. God knows you, He sees your storms, He hears your cries, He sees your afflictions and He is aware of your sufferings.
I want you to realize that the Children of Israel to this point had not brought this pain and affliction into their lives, they had been born into this bondage. Some circumstances in life we don't choose, some choices are made long before we come along. And the generations long before Moses and the Children of Israel had been forced to move to Egypt because of circumstances beyond their control, drought and famine had forced them to seek provision for their family. It was not a choice at the time, it was the hand that life had dealt them. Many times storms come not as a result of our bad choices, but as circumstances beyond our control, and all of us can relate to that in our own lives. Beyond our control kind of storms can be some of the most frustrating and seemingly unfair storms we will ever face. Before God went to Moses and met him in the desert in the burning bush, God already had His children in his heart and mind. God began to work out a plan to deliver the Children of Israel from Egypt. I want you to see that God was working on a plan before Israel could see any relief at all. To them it was just like any other day of misery. They could not yet see that God was moving in their lives. Yet God was moving on the back side of the desert in Moses' life. God is moving behind the scenes in our lives working out the details, yet the storm rages on where we are at. God has a plan and He will make a way.
Another detail I want to bring to your attention was how God used Moses in His plan to deliver the Children of Israel, yet he had been one to make a very bad decision by killing an Egyptian and then running away into the desert to flee from Pharaoh. Sometimes we make bad choices and many times there is a price to pay for making those bad choices, these are often storms of our own making.
Moses ran away into the desert and was there 40 years. But God hadn't forgotten the Children of Israel and God didn't forget Moses either, God still had a plan for Moses' life. God has a plan for your life. It doesn't matter what you've done, what kind of bad choices you have made, God still has a plan for your life and wants to make a way for you to be involved with Him and His plan to help others.
The final point I want to make is that when Moses and Aaron go back to Egypt and go to the elders of Israel and tell them all that the Lord had said about them, it says in Exodus 4:31 "So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped." (NASB)
When the Children of Israel were told that the Lord was concerned about them and He saw their affliction, they responded two ways. First they believed and secondly they worshiped the Lord. In this message I am asking you to look at how God treated the Children of Israel. He saw, He heard, He remembered, He is aware of their suffering.
Today you need to know that the Bible says, " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 If you are born again then He is your God and He knows exactly what you are going through.
Now God wants you to respond the same way as the Children of Israel did, He wants you to believe. Believe He cares for you, Believe He is working on a plan for you and your life, Believe that He can and will deliver you from your Storm, from your bondage, in your Egypt. Then respond in worship to the Lord. The Children of Israel worshiped the Lord not because they could see the change and deliverance, but because God heard their cries and He was concerned with their lives.
