Opening Prayer:
"Quiet our minds of incessant chatter and the constant parade of images. Quiet our hearts of the swirling emotions we feel. Help us breath and become still...speak, Lord, your servants are listening."
Numbers 24: 1-13
Balaam was a hired gun, so to speak. Balak, King of Moab, hired him to curse God's people, believing this would doom the Israelites to failure in their quest to inhabit the land God promised to give them. A true curse, in those days, was understood to be guaranteed to happen. The problem for King Balak was that the curse had to be in the name (and thus in the power of) of God. Balak wanted to use God against God's own people! So Balak tried three separate times to get Balaam to curse Israel, offering more and more reward. Each time God made Balaam bless the people of Israel. Though Balaam deeply desired the reward, God would simply not be bought. Balaam didn't get what he wanted. King Moab didn't get what he wanted. It looks like God got what God wanted. Israel was blessed. God bent things into the shape God desired.
In some ways life as a Christian is like being a metal tool forged over the hair-burning coals of a furnace. The smith puts the metal into the fire to soften it, then bangs away with a hammer, sparks flying, metal giving in to heat and force. Jesus wants us to willingly present our hopes, dreams, and expectations of life to him, knowing full well that he may burn and bash a few into a different shape.
Life Questions: How willingly do we offer our lives back to God to be shaped in his direction? What are we fighting God about?
Closing Prayer: Lord of love, give us grace to freely offer our bent lives to you for straightening. Remind us that the heat and hammer are wielded with unmeasurable love, and that you have something beautiful and useful in mind for us.
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