The Holy Spirit has but one direction – always and only forwards.  The children of Israel had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt just as the child of God has been delivered from the bondage of sin.  To return would be ruin.  But isn’t ‘returning that way‘ the temptation for most?  How easy it is for us to forget how great a taskmaster sin is and the painful wages it delivers! The temptation for a king in the new nation of Israel would be to say, “Oh, we’re just going back to retrieve some horses and chariots! You know, in case we need to defend ourselves in our new land.” God forbid! The one thing that pleases God is ‘faith.’ Can He not be trusted? Must I go back to providing for myself? The daily fight for the child of God is to renounce all dependence on self and that which we can ‘provide’ for ourselves by the means of the flesh. As a blood-bought redeemed child of God, EVERYTHING I need has already been provided by my elder brother, Christ Jesus, and His atoning work on Calvary. Now, do I really believe that? If so, I can conclude that it is not God’s will for me to go back to ‘Egypt’ and bargain with my former employer, the devil, for a relationship, job, peace, joy, a reprieve from loneliness, etc, etc. God’s best for me is before me, prepared in eternity past by a good Father who loves me and has prepared a way, the way of faith, to those who would but dare throw the weight of their being on Jesus – Who He is and What He has done.

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman