God's Love Shepherds us from Mara to Elim

In the church sermon today, the reference was Deuteronomy 8, where he started with verse 3

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

God led His people, the Israelites out of Egypt and into the desert. There He taught them humility. In the same way this is how He deal with us Christians.

I have endured this lesson as well. I came from a great work-place that offered great pay where I was revered as someone who was sort of an "expert" at what I did. I moved though thinking that I would have better opportunity in another company. This indeed was quite a humbling experience as I realized I was an expert at nothing.

God allows His people to taste the bitter waters of Mara. As we are allowed to learn lessons the hard way because some times this is the only way we can learn them. It's kind of difficult to teach humility by word only but it's a lot easier to absorb it by practice.

After Mara though, God also let's us taste how sweet the waters are after we have learned our lessons. He is also gracious enough to let us enjoy Elim - a land with 12 springs and 70 palm trees. Imagine that within the desert.

We enjoy God's presence in this abundance these days. We are very fortunate. The speaker called on the congregation to appreciate that day by day and to always acknowledge God's hand

Humility In Abundance

I learned something really nice last Sunday. The speaker quoted the verse Philippian 4:12

"I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need."

God has given us so many things. We are so blessed. So we must be humble. God allows us to be self-sufficient as a blessing. But we should trust in Him for all things. When I say trust though, doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything. We should still act accordingly and do our jobs and stuff like that, we just should be boastful about them and think it's because we're amazing as people. If anything, we are nothing and only vessels of God. I do hope He leads me in the path He wants me to be.