pMoses’ life was pretty tough. A real parade of awful. He started life floating down a river, grew up to rebel against the guy who was like a brother to him, and led the Jewish people away from Pharaoh through a huge sea, only to face constant opposition from them. ‘Moses, we’re hungry. Moses, where’s God? Moses, are we nearly there yet?’ Exhausting, right? So, ‘the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock”’ (Exodus 33:21 ESV). A few verses ahead, you’ll see that Moses had asked God for His help. This ‘rock’ thing didn’t come out of the blue. In all the trials he faced, Moses had discovered how important it was to rest on God. So when more problems came his way, he knew exactly where to look: to the rock, next to God, where he could stand. More than that, Moses dreaded the idea of going any further without God’s presence going with him. And so he went searching for God, to his rock. Sometimes, God knows that we need a process of searching for, and *choosing* to rest in, His presence. So He’ll wait for us to ask for strength. Something we probably need to ask for more regularly. God waits for us to come to Him. Jesus, the rock who sits at the side of His Father (Mark 16:19), is ready to give us strength. /p
pWhat now?br /
How have you reacted to trouble in the past year? Can you figure out what your go-to response is? Now, before tricky stuff happens in future, list a couple of ways to make sure that God is the centre of your response./p