40 Days of Prayer - Friday, May 24 - Devotion 5

Prayer Changes You
Exodus 32

I love pondering Exodus 32:32. You know the story. Moses had led the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the wilderness of Sinai. It was in the wilderness of Sinai that the Israelites remained while the LORD descended on Mount Sinai.  God called Moses up to the mountain and gave him the Ten Commandments and instruction regarding acceptable behavior and how the tabernacle was to be assembled along with its furnishings. Moses spent 40 days communing with the LORD. While Moses was communing with the LORD the Israelites were creating a golden calf. The situation goes from good to bad quickly. God revealed to Moses the wickedness of the Israelites and His judgment upon them.

 Exodus 32:7-10 ⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

How would you think Moses would have responded?  Exodus 32:32 tells us what Moses said, ³² But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. How would you have responded to Israel's sin? I ask myself often if I would have responded as Moses did
and been willing to have my name blotted out instead of theirs. Moses offered to have his own name blotted out of the book of life. His time in communion with God changed him.

Henry Blackaby says, God will use prayer times to soften your heart and change your focus. As you pray for others, the Holy Spirit will work in your heart so that you have the same compassion for them that God does (Romans 8:26-27). If you do not love people as you should, pray for them. If you are not serving God as you should, pray. You cannot be exposed to God's heart and remain complacent. The time spent with God will change you and make you more like Christ.

In Christ, Bryan