AGAIN...AND AGAIN
Today's reading: Numbers 16-18

"But the very next morning the whole community began muttering again against Moses and Aaron..." Numbers 16:41 NLT

Less than twenty-four hours after watching God perform a earth-opening, men-swallowed-by-the-ground, guilty-parties-wiped-out kind of moment, the Israelites are right back at what they were doing prior to God making His statement.

It sometimes seems beyond me what they did and how they reacted to God during their forty year journey, until I look closely at my own life.

Until I turn the spotlight on myself.

Until I take a good, hard look in the mirror.

Because I have chosen to turn right back to sins God had forgiven me of...

Right back to the wicked ways that had led me away from Him...

Right into the traps my enemy always has set up for me...

Right into the stinkin' thinkin' that allows me to believe lies over truth...

Right into the same pits God had pulled me out of just moments before...

God was with them. God is with me.

God showed them mercy, abundant mercy. God shows the same, if not more, mercy to me.

God desired that they obey Him. Simply obey. He asks no more, and no less, of me.

God forgave them over and over, but still allowed the consequences of their sins to weigh heavy on their lives. He does the same for me, but with more grace that I should ever be allowed.

Oh, I'm no better than an Israelite--except I have the blood of Jesus washing over me!