Pleading With God

Devotion

4-14-10

Pleading With God

Deuteronomy 3:23-29

I also pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, “O Lord God, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Thine?  Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.”

 

 But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me: and the Lord said to me, “Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter.  Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes to the west and north and south and east, and see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.  But charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go across at the head of this people, and he shall give them as an inheritance the land which you will see.”  So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

 

Has there ever been a time in your life when someone was so angry at you that the discipline they gave you seemed too hard in your mind yet they were not willing to relent of the discipline? 

 

As parents, we are often faced with this in our children.  They disobey and we set a punishment for it and then they begin to beg or plead with us not to carry through with that discipline.  The more they beg / plead their case the more upset we get.  We love them and hate having to discipline, however, we know that not carrying through would only build in their minds the thoughts of distrust.  They have to trust our words wheater they are words of praise or of discipline.  They must believe we mean what we say!

 

Do you believe it is important to carry through with the discipline you set into motion for your children?

 

If you are not a parent but deal with other people, do you believe it is important for those who break the law to pay the price for doing so?

 

God is setting the example, in the verses above, with Moses.  Not obeying God when He told him to speak to the rock led him down a long path of dread because he so much wanted to enter the promise land, but God had already told him he would not.  True Moses did many good things and obeyed God in most of his life, but the discipline for his actions still had to be carried out.  After all God is good but He is also very just! He is faithful to His word, all of it, judgment and reward. Are you pleading with God about something? Stop begging and start praising Him, it will please Him and give you peace.