Great Plains Daily Devotional for 4/9/2021

Do you remember the frog story that was in Exodus Chapter 8? If you don’t here it is: 

Exodus 8:1-11

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The river shall swarm with frogs; they shall come up into your palace, into your bedchamber and your bed, and into the houses of your officials and of your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials.’” And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, the canals, and the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’” So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts, and brought frogs up on the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, “Pray to the Lord to take away the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “Kindly tell me when I am to pray for you and for your officials and for your people, that the frogs may be removed from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.” And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “As you say! So that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God, the frogs shall leave you and your houses and your officials and your people; they shall be left only in the Nile.”

 

You’re probably thinking that it would be awful to have so many frogs around and you are glad that you don’t live there. But here’s the catch – we all have our own frogs in our lives. Christine Caine talks about this in her book Undaunted, each of us have frogs in our lives and when they start croaking they sing ugly songs. Here are some frogs that Christine Caine points our: 

• “The frog of insecurity, who croaks, “But what if I fail? What if they don’t like me?”
• “The frog of bitterness, anger, rage, and resentment, who sings the same old repetition song. His croaking reassures us that we have every reason to still be angry, to withhold our love, to make them pay.” 
• “The frog of lust, of vice, of self-gratification. He lulls us towards the bottle, a pill, our flesh, driving us to soothe our pain or ease our loneliness or compensate for our longing, even if just for the moment” 
• “The frog of fear, who really makes us procrastinate, stall, and avoid, until we croak right along with him: “I always fall short. I always disappoint. I never succeed, never overcome, never make it to the next phase, never stick to my resolve” 
• “The frog of unforgiveness and offense, who is so subtle he gets us to rehearse the same old stanzas over and over; “She told me this. He called me that. He did this to me. He left me. He failed me. She lied about me. She accused me.” 

Like Moses told Pharaoh, we have a decision to make on when we want to rid ourselves of the frogs in our lives. And when do we say we will deal with them? Tomorrow. Just like Pharaoh, we choose to not rid ourselves of frogs and simply live with them another day. 

“The only way to claim our future, to step into the calling God has in store for each and every one of us, is to face our issues with undaunted faith. Today. God is ready to rid our lives of frogs, but he leaves it up to us to choose today. God was faithful, even to Pharaoh. How can he not be faithful to you?” – Christine Caine 

Prayer for Reflection

Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8