In Exodus 34 God appears to Moses to give him the laws for the Israelites a second time (the people were just caught trying to create a god of their own.) Moses falls to the ground and pleads, “God please do not make us go on from here on our own. Go with us! These people are so hard headed and rebellious. Forgive them and make them your own people!”
Moses knew first hand how difficult it was to get people to listen to God’s instructions. He didn’t want to be the one to lead them, but begged God to go before them Himself. He prayed earnestly for God to take hold of his people and make them His. He stood before God on behalf of his people who could not plead for themselves. And we are here to do the same for the people around us.
We talked to one of our neighbors about helping us with the stories. We just asked her to listen and tell us what she thought. She told us she couldn’t. She was afraid others would find out that she was listening to the Christian stories. Her family already had enough trouble this year.
We spoke with the woman who lives next to us, Kora. We have gone to visit her a few times and really enjoyed talking with her. We asked her if she would like to hear the stories and help us. She quickly agreed and, with her two sons, listened to the first story about how God created the world and the first man and woman. They retold the story and talked with us about it. They are willing to listen to more whenever we want to come by.
There are opportunities all around us. But we have to look for them. And we have to be willing to step out and stand before God on behalf of the people around us. Pray that we will take every opportunity to share with our friends and neighbors here. Pray for us that we will not get discouraged when they say no. And pray especially that God would make these people His own. They ARE a stubborn and difficult people, like most of us, and we need Him to go before us and show us the way.
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