ANOTHER NIGHT OF FROGS


So many people believe in God with all their hearts. 
They know what He has promised to each one of us in His
Word. Yet they don't quite come to the point of effective
believing. They don't bring their problems or their needs to
a focus and then spell them out in prayer.

In Exodus, we can read one of the most incredible
stories in the Bible. Incredible not because of what God
says or even what He does, but incredible because of how
people answer Him.

Pharaoh had been commanded to "Let my people go!" To
persuade Pharaoh to yield to His will, God first causes
Moses' staff to turn into a serpent and then sends the
plagues upon Egypt. The second of these plagues was a real
doozy -- it brought frogs ...

"They will come up into your palace and 
your bedroom and onto your bed, into the 
houses of your officials and on your people, 
and into your ovens and kneading troughs." 
(Exodus 8:3)

Now those must have been fun days in downtown Egypt! 
You climb between the nice fresh sheets on your bed -- and
you put your feet on a cold clammy frog. You sit down to
breakfast and a green frog jumps out of the cereal box. 
Slimy, slippery, warty creatures all over you. Everywhere. 
Until you'd do just about anything to be free of them.

What with these frogs driving everybody nuts, creating
a health hazard, messing up rush hour traffic and making a
general nuisance of themselves, Pharaoh finally calls in
Moses and says, "OK, you win. I'm ready to obey God. Plead
with him, beg him, do whatever you have to do, just get him
to get rid of these frogs already."

Moses has an answer that is simplicity itself: "Fine,
just tell me when."

And here comes one of the most astounding answers in
all of the Bible. In verse 10, Pharaoh says, "Tomorrow."

He had a choice of when he and everyone around him
could be set free from these frogs. If he had said,
"When!?? Are you crazy! NOW! Get these things out of here
right now!" that's exactly what he would have gotten. He
had a clear choice of when to become a free man. Yet he
chose to let himself and his people go through another night
of frogs.

How about you?

How many nights of frogs have you suffered through? 
How long have you put off facing your situation and taking
it the Lord in prayer. The Bible teaches that it's up to
you to make the first move. "Ask". "Seek". "Knock". These
are all action you have to take before God can answer. 
Remember the woman who reached out to touch the hem of
Jesus' robe? The man who came to Jesus through a hole cut
in the roof of a house? The Roman centurion?

An old hymn says it all ...

"Oh, what peace who often forfeit.
Oh, what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer."


Today -- right now -- can be your time. Identify your
need and take it to the Lord. You don't have to make a big
deal out of it. You don't need trumpets and fanfare and you
don't need a crowd. This is your day. What Moses said to
Pharaoh in Exodus 8:9, God says to you today --

"I leave to you the honor of setting the time."


-- Tom Mauceri  

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