When Following God Makes Life Harder | Mornings with Mico

A lot familiar, what's going on, man, how we doing today? My name is Miko, and welcome to my one-on-one time with God. Today, I'm actually, I'm in a story in Exodus, the book of Exodus chapter five, and just to kind of give you some context on where we are here. The Israelites, they're in Egypt, they're held captive there as slaves, they've cried out to God for rescue. God has reached out to Moses, and he sent Moses to go and talk to the Pharaoh to free the Israelites. And funny thing happens, right, he goes and Pharaoh doesn't free him, right? Pharaoh actually, he gets frustrated with Moses for even approaching him, and he doubles down and life actually gets harder for the Israelites. And now the Israelites are furious with Moses, and Moses is now dealing with a bunch of disgruntled Israelites as he's being obedient to God, doing what God's called him to do. And yeah, it's not, it's like everything's just falling through the bottom. And we catch up with Moses in this chapter five, verse, we'll start with 22, it says, Moses returned to the Lord and said, why Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people. You have not rescued your people at all. And as I was reading this, I just want to share what you like, a thought that I began to, that began to kind of form in my mind, and it's so often we associate God's calling with ease, comfort, which can sometimes be a byproduct of his favor and grace, but that's not always the case. What happens when God calls you and things actually get worse? And that's what we're seeing here, that as God calls Moses and Moses says, yes, things get worse. And I can think in my own life of seasons where I know God's called me to a thing, right, coming home from prison. And I ended up landing a really good, a really good job with, it was a sales role to, you know, run up a check.

You know what I mean? And God called me away from it. And as much as I struggled walking away from it, it got to a point where I'm like, okay, God, I'm going to be obedient in this. And in my obedience, there was also this expectation that there was something greater on the other side of that. And which there was way further down the road, I'm kind of living in that now, but immediately after like life just got worse and so confused, like, okay, God, I'm obedient to you. I did what you called me to do. What is this? You know what I mean? Like, how are we here? Like this makes zero sense to me. And I'm reminded of in this story as, as, because if you read further along, one of the things that God, he's, he's doing in this, it talks about how God is, he's, he's, he's setting a stage to proclaim his glory to the nations and to generations. So much as you read the old Testament, you'll see even other nations. They referenced this God, this God Yahweh that they don't know as the God who rescued the Israelites, the God who, you know, destroyed Pharaoh and the Kings and, and, and, and just the plagues that, that he brought on, on, on Egypt. And they recognize him. They know him by, by these great things that he's done. And this was a part of God's why, this was a part of why God, it even goes to say that he hardened Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh wouldn't just let the people go as he was sending Moses. God was picking a fight here. God was actually using this, this scene, this, this setting as an opportunity to show the world who he was, to, to, to reveal himself in this nature of himself to the entire world. And I'll be honest with you, that, that, that can be challenging, right? Like as, as, as we're walking this walk with God and things aren't necessarily

getting better in certain cases, but they're actually getting worse, and to have to wrestle with the thought of, wow, what if this is God again picking a fight? What if God is using me as an instrument to proclaim his glory to the generations through me or to my sphere of influence? He's setting the stage to reveal himself through me, through the way that I posture myself in difficult seasons, through the way that maybe he brings me out of that difficult season to show people around me as we continue to walk with him and lean into him. This is his way of showing people who he is and how he's a provider and he's a good God. I think the difficult piece to that for us is because when we say yes to God, we don't always get to choose the role that we get to play in his story, and to find ourselves as willing vessels becoming these instruments that he uses in this way, I don't know, man. I can definitely, I can relate. I can relate to that, and I know, man, it definitely sucks. I don't know what your experience with that has been, and maybe it hasn't. Maybe you haven't experienced that yet, but I just want to encourage you and let you know that if you do find yourself saying yes to God, recognizing his calling, and things seem to take a left, a turn for the worse, that's not to say that you made a wrong decision or you heard him wrong. That life, whatever that situation is, it's not void of his presence. It's not void of his favor. It's not void of his grace. This is just a part of what walking with him looks like sometimes. It looks like things getting worse when we say yes to him. Jesus is the ultimate example of that, right? Him saying yes, and he had to endure the cross, right? We all have a cross to bear, and it comes with that yes, and I just want to send you some encouragement to tell you if that is a season you're in, not to jump ship, not to feel abandoned, not to feel that, oh, maybe I did the wrong thing or made the wrong move or maybe I heard God wrong because walking with God shouldn't feel like this. Like, no, maybe it does.

Maybe for this season, he's doing something in you. He's producing something in you in this season, weeding out maybe the pieces of you that aren't pleasing to him. He's using this to purge you of that. Maybe he's setting the stage and he wants people to see how he's going to be faithful in your life in spite of this season. Maybe he wants people to see how you remain tethered to him and you remain steadfast in your faith no matter what your circumstance looks like. Maybe that's what this is. I don't know for sure what that is with you, right? But this isn't stuff I'm just pulling out the side of my neck. This is how God operates because his word shows us this. His word shows us that this is his character and this is how he shows up, right? And then we use his word to make sense of what we experience. It gives language to what we're experiencing out here, and that's how we arrive at these understandings. What exactly he's doing in that moment, we may not know, or maybe he does reveal it to you, right? But please, brothers, sisters, be encouraged. No matter what your yes looks like for you now, no matter what it's cost you, it's worth it. It's worth it. And he's with you and he sees you and he hears you. Don't lose faith. That's what the enemy will want. So I'm going to talk to you as your brother and tell you, stay down and let whatever God is doing in this, let him have his way in it. I hope that encourages you. May God bless you.