God Saw - And He Knew

I've gotten really bad at this blogging thing, eh?  Yeah...been a kajillion billion things I've been doing.

In any case, I felt like it was time to share some of what God's been teaching me.   I'm sure this blog post will only begin to brush the surface of what I'm learning and some of you might not care what God is specifically doing in my life and some of you might think that all of this is a little crazy (maybe you'll think "duh Kristi...you should have known that a long time ago" or maybe even "Um God? Really?  You're crazy").  And all of these things are fine.  I'm sharing in hopes that someone will read this and be able to relate.  I'm sharing this in hopes that when times get hard I'll be able to come back here, read this and be reminded that my Jesus loves me.  I'm sharing this because the truth of Jesus is just far too wonderful not to share.

Anyway, so here it is.

The church I go to is amazing.  I've been there for over 2 1/2 years.  Throughout those 2 1/2 years I've experienced so much and I can't imagine not having the community at City Church to walk through those experiences with.  Another thing that I really love about City Church is their commitment to walking through scripture together, as a church body.  As part of City Bible Reading (CBR), we read a new testament and an old testament passage every day.  Now it's time for me to admit something...Over the past 2 1/2 years, I've rarely done this.  I could give you all of the millions of reasons why, but I won't.  The point is, I typically found better things to do, or would forget, or whatever. But lately, I've been reading....I've been craving it...more and more.  I don't say this to gain recognition or praise from anyone, just to be transparent.

As I've been reading lately, it's been strange because I've felt myself gravitating more and more towards the stories of the Old Testament and quite honestly, typically I have trouble seeing any correlation between those stories and my story.  But the more I read, the more I see how the story of Moses and my story and your story are all intricately related.  Our stories are all part of the larger redemption story.  The story of Moses is just as relevant now as it was then. It's a story of deliverance...of God knowing his people and never forgetting about them.

I think I can feel forgotten sometimes...or a lot of times.  I can't tell you how many times I've yelled at God, asking him if He's forgotten about me.  Begging that He would hear my cries and do something...anything.  There have been times in my life where I've been convinced that God has completely turned his back on me or that He was too busy with far more important things or important people to deal with me.  But as I've been reading through Exodus and the story of Moses and the Israelites, my eyes have been re-opened to the Truth. 

Read these verses from Exodus 2:23-25:

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

I get what you might be thinking. "Kristi, you have nothing in common with the Israelites.  They were SLAVES. You have a pretty easy, simple life."  Yeah, I thought that too.  But I think there are more similarities between us (21st century Christians) and the Israelites than we realize.  They were physical slaves to the Egyptians...but we, too, are slaves.  I'm a slave to my idols. I'm a slave to the things of this world.  I'm a slave to anything that distracts me from growing intimately closer to Jesus.  And here it is...my enslavement...and yet here God is, rescuing me.

Exodus 2:25 says "God SAW the people of Israel - and God KNEW." (my emphasis). When the Israelites felt stranded and alone...God SAW.  He KNEW the misery they were in.  He knew their enslavement.  And as the next chapters reveal, He had laid out a plan for the rescue.  From Egypt and ultimately, through Christ's death on the cross, from the depths of Hell.

God never forsakes His people. (Deuteronomy 31:8) He saw the Israelites...he rescued them from enslavement. He sees ME...and He's rescued me from the enslavement of my sins.

So that's my jumbled mess of thoughts...I recently wrote an email to someone and shared this with them:

The Lord is revealing to me that my deepest and most desperate desire is to intimately know Him and I feel like I'm steadily growing to understand what that means.  It's a relief and a joy.  

It's true. I've said it before...I'll never have this thing all figured out, but I'm walking in faith. And God, through his Son, is continuing to rescue me.