Frame In God

“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” (Ex 32:1 AV)

Herein was the beginning of their error.  Moses didn’t bring Israel out of Egypt, God did.  It was this temporal and carnal way of thinking that got Israel into more trouble than any other single thing.  It was their inability to see God in all things and exercise faith in Him that led to the majority of their problems.  From the need for water three days after their great exodus to the last bit of the old generation that died off, they had a hard time framing their existence as a relationship with a God that could not see who would lead them and care for them.  Their eyes could not stay on the spiritual and eternal, even if they were temporarily set that way.  They had been led from Egypt with a pillar of fire and cloud.  They had a miracle of water handed to them.  God manifested Himself when they needed Him to but the moment they doubted, their eyes were on what they could see.  Not on what they could not see.  To constantly frame our pilgrimage in spiritual reality rather than physical reality is difficult.  But it is necessary.

We are physical creatures that live in a physical world.  We deal with the physically obvious.  The physical things of this world meet our immediate and most pressing needs.  As far as our physical existence is concerned.  However, there is a whole nother realm out there which is far more significant.  The spiritual world is the eternal one and this spiritual existence should give definition to the physical and not the other way around.  We fail at framing our existence in the context of a permanent and continuous relationship with God.  We compartmentalize our relationship with God rather than seeing it as something that gives definition to everything else.  We do not see our wage as something God provides.  Rather, we see it as something we personally earned.  We do not see the breath we take as something God enables us to do.  We see it as a force of nature which our brains involuntarily do.  We do not see the sunny days or snow-filled days as something God sends.  Rather, we see it as a result of the movement of the jet stream.  We fail to frame God in our lives and the dominant influence and force upon them because we are naturally inclined to do so.

It thanks a mind that is spiritually orientated to see what is really there.  It wasn’t Moses who led Israel out of Egypt and more than it was your gifts or talents that made you a success.  It wasn’t Moses who turned the bitter water into potable water any more than it was you who recovered from an injury.  It wasn’t Moses who fed Israel in the wilderness, organized a battle, or gave direction as they wandered any more than it was you or another human entity that got you to where you are in life.  God did it all.  This is the point.  The less we see God, the more we will stray from our relationship with Him.  The more we see God in all things, the more intimately we will experience Him.  The saint that sees God in all things is the saint who knows God in all circumstances.  Set our affection on things above, starting with God Himself and we will realize there is more to life than what can be seen.  He is real!  He is active!  He does care!  He is watching!  We just need to see it.