Working It Out In Prayer Is Always Best

Exodus 4:27–31 (ESV) The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

I thought about the brevity in which the Bible describes this moment. Moses meets Aaron, they speak to the elders, the elders see the signs and believe.

If we turn back to the beginning of this chapter, we remember that this was one of Moses' excuses for not wanting to go do what God had told him:

Exodus 4:1 (ESV) Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’ ”

God then responds by giving him the signs to perform. He instructs Moses to perform the signs so that the people might believe. 

I thought about this. The rest of the deliverance is going to be a struggle. Moses is not out of the woods and the people will question his leadership when Pharaoh turns up the heat. But this issue of them believing God spoke to him is settled in short order. 

Why? Because Moses had worked this out in prayer with God beforehand. Moses gets a lot of "preacher grief" for all his excuses. We discussed them earlier. But there is a benefit to all his prayerful hesitancy with God... he gets an answer and a direction from the Almighty that takes him through a rather difficult challenge. The people are convinced the runaway murderer is God's man. It's better to work whatever you're struggling with in prayer first.

I wonder what would happen if we did that more regularly? I wonder how much of our worries would never come to pass simply because we would have cast them to the Lord in prayer? This is the instruction of Peter.

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

You have two choices with whatever is weighing on your mind today. You can do your best to take on the challenge yourself. Or you can express your concerns to God and see Him give you the wisdom to handle it in the power He gives you.