Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 2:5–10
Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
CONSIDER THIS
Previously, on “Plan B?” we “stood at a distance” with big sister on the shoreline of the Nile, fighting back tears, as we watched the tiny baby, tucked into the ark of God, float into the reeds of the river of faith.
Meanwhile—watch, no behold, what happened!
In case you missed it: Pharaoh’s daughter came to the Nile to bathe and spotted the tiny ark of faith. She sent her slave over to investigate, and—just like that—this infant slave, condemned to death by her Pharaoh father, was in her arms.
It gets better. Remember big sister? She lets go of our hand and saunters up to Pharaoh’s daughter with a quite strategic solution:
“Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.
The plot keeps turning, and eases into the category of “truth is stranger than fiction.” In other words, you can’t make this up.
Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.
This, my friends, is how Plan A works! The woman is the baby’s mother, and Pharaoh’s daughter agreed to pay her—the baby’s mother—to nurse her own baby; the same baby she surrendered to God and pushed out into the Nile in the tiny ark of faith just hours before.
When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
This is how we get from Plan B back to Plan A: surrender. We renounce resignation to Plan B and we surrender to the God of Plan A. We don’t know how, or when, or where, or even if much of the time (if we are honest), but we know God. We surrender and we do the next good, right, God-thing in front of us. Plan B, the apparent lesser-evil choice, dictated throwing the baby in the river to drown because Plan C promised a much worse outcome if Plan B was not observed. Plan A seemed impossible, implausible, and, yes, even downright absurd. Can we make one last double-take here so we might imprint into our hearts and minds what Plan A often looks like? “But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile” (Ex. 2:3).
Picture it. As she weaves the reeds together through her tears into the basket—the living God of heaven and earth weaves Plan A right into the devastation and destruction of Plan B. As she hand coats the basket with tar and pitch, the hand of God applies it like Holy Spirit mortar, salving the faith of this broken mother and sealing the fate of the wicked Pharaoh decades in advance. That’s how Plan A works—quietly under the surface, hidden in the reeds, until suddenly, one day years hence, at the appointed time, he rises up and splits the sea.
What Pharaoh intended for evil, God turned into good. Through these two exceedingly obscure and unimportant people at this very obscure moment in the history of the world, we get one of the most significant people who ever lived: Moses, the one drawn up out of the water.
Remember that the next time you think your choice or your voice or your courageous action doesn’t matter.
Remember that in the present struggle in your own life, the one that has you tired beyond tired and ready to quit. Don’t give up or give in to weak resignation. Surrender to Jesus. Let him start preparing the basket through your hands.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I hear you decree a season of exodus over me, over my family, and my church.
I receive it. And as you decree it, I declare it.
I receive your deliverance from the spirit of weak resignation and into the boldness of deep surrender to the will of our Father God.
Prepare my heart, mind, soul, and strength for the deliverance that comes with exodus.
Now let it be as you decree—for my good, for others’ gain, and for your glory.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
How are you inspired to renounce the spirit of weak resignation to your circumstances and to surrender to God in bold faith? How might you be standing from a distance and watching with curiosity at Plan A in the works? How might you start walking toward the river and up to Pharaoh’s daughter in the situation?
WHAT IS THIS?Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.
Comments and Discussion
6 Responses
Good Morning Pastor JD,
My heart was saddened to hear about the Grantham family tragedy. I live in Valdosta Ga and yet felt a deep sadness and compassion for the family and also for you as you did the funeral yesterday. I even went online to read about this terrific lady and her family and her life.
My only thought was we have an enemy who wants to kill, steal, and destroy.
Thank you for your heart and the Wake-up call every day. This may sound strange coming from a stranger, but we aren’t really strangers are we!
The Holy Spirit unites us in all things. Love you brother!
As present day followers of Christ, we have a huge advantage over God’s people who lived during the pre-Christian era. Whereas they had God’s promise to one day send a deliverer through the “seed of a woman “; we have all of God’s promises a “Yes” in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 1:20) Therefore, when I might be tempted to give in to resignation to the evil of this current age, I’m reminded of God’s promises of our inheritance awaiting us in the age to come. God is faithful to keep His promises. Our victory has been secured through faith in Christ Jesus, and God’s power is made manifest in our weaknesses. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Thank you for this message on plan versus Plan B versus Plan B. My question to you is what do we do for this year‘s elections presidential candidate is a good candidate so yes, I am planning to vote for the lesser up to evil. How do we reconcile that?
Let God work in you the way that He worked in and through Jochebed, a Hebrew slave in Egypt. God used Jochebed to save her infant son from the Pharoah’s order of death for all newborn Hebrew boys. Here’s how she trusted in and relied on the Lord to save her son. She made a basket that would float by covering it with tar. Then Jochebed had her daughter put the newborn baby in the basket-boat and release him to float down the Nile River.
Soon the slave baby (condemned to death) was drawn out of the Nile River by the Pharoah’s daughter and into membership in the royal family with all its benefits. The Pharoah’s daughter named the baby Moses, which means “draw out.”
At 40 Moses was drawn out of great political power, wealth, and fame, and into the obscurity of the desert. At 80 he was drawn out of obscurity and into the impossible task of freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. However, Moses was able to supernaturally speak for God, demonstrate phenomenal nation-wide miracles, and to draw out the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the glorious presence of God that set Mount Sinai on fire. That fire from God shined on Moses’ face so brightly that people wanted him to cover it up.
We humans have been covering up and avoiding God’s glory ever since. But the opportunity to behold God’s glory wasn’t limited to Mount Sinai. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” –2 Corinthians 3:14.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now is the time for Christ-followers to “Behold the Lamb of God,” to be personally and directly led from within by the Spirit throughout each day, and to radiate Christ’s presence and reality so that we can draw people out of the darkness and into the Light of the World! Now is the time for Christ-followers to be drawn out of routine religion and into Spirit-led awakening!
You may not remember Moses’ mother’s name, Jochebed. In Hebrew it means “the glory of the Lord.”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” –Ephesians 3:20. Let the God of Moses work in you and draw you out of everything that hinders His Spirt form releasing His glory in and through you!
I am not a pastor, but the church secretary of a small congregation of grateful believers in Jesus Christ. I have listened to your daily thoughts and words from God’s Holy Word. I have been inspired in so many ways and share the messages to all my Facebook friends from each post. May God bless you, Pastor John David Walt, and may the words be received in each of those who hear. Thank you for your obedience in delivering messages of hope to each of us!
My daily life isn’t really right if I don’t start my mornings with listen to the Wake up call. A few mornings I have to do something or go to an appointment before I have a chance to listen to the Wake up Call and my day just isn’t nearly as good.
6 Responses
Good Morning Pastor JD,
My heart was saddened to hear about the Grantham family tragedy. I live in Valdosta Ga and yet felt a deep sadness and compassion for the family and also for you as you did the funeral yesterday. I even went online to read about this terrific lady and her family and her life.
My only thought was we have an enemy who wants to kill, steal, and destroy.
Thank you for your heart and the Wake-up call every day. This may sound strange coming from a stranger, but we aren’t really strangers are we!
The Holy Spirit unites us in all things. Love you brother!
Ronn Ross
As present day followers of Christ, we have a huge advantage over God’s people who lived during the pre-Christian era. Whereas they had God’s promise to one day send a deliverer through the “seed of a woman “; we have all of God’s promises a “Yes” in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 1:20) Therefore, when I might be tempted to give in to resignation to the evil of this current age, I’m reminded of God’s promises of our inheritance awaiting us in the age to come. God is faithful to keep His promises. Our victory has been secured through faith in Christ Jesus, and God’s power is made manifest in our weaknesses. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Thank you for this message on plan versus Plan B versus Plan B. My question to you is what do we do for this year‘s elections presidential candidate is a good candidate so yes, I am planning to vote for the lesser up to evil. How do we reconcile that?
What’s Her Name?
Let God work in you the way that He worked in and through Jochebed, a Hebrew slave in Egypt. God used Jochebed to save her infant son from the Pharoah’s order of death for all newborn Hebrew boys. Here’s how she trusted in and relied on the Lord to save her son. She made a basket that would float by covering it with tar. Then Jochebed had her daughter put the newborn baby in the basket-boat and release him to float down the Nile River.
Soon the slave baby (condemned to death) was drawn out of the Nile River by the Pharoah’s daughter and into membership in the royal family with all its benefits. The Pharoah’s daughter named the baby Moses, which means “draw out.”
At 40 Moses was drawn out of great political power, wealth, and fame, and into the obscurity of the desert. At 80 he was drawn out of obscurity and into the impossible task of freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. However, Moses was able to supernaturally speak for God, demonstrate phenomenal nation-wide miracles, and to draw out the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the glorious presence of God that set Mount Sinai on fire. That fire from God shined on Moses’ face so brightly that people wanted him to cover it up.
We humans have been covering up and avoiding God’s glory ever since. But the opportunity to behold God’s glory wasn’t limited to Mount Sinai. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” –2 Corinthians 3:14.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now is the time for Christ-followers to “Behold the Lamb of God,” to be personally and directly led from within by the Spirit throughout each day, and to radiate Christ’s presence and reality so that we can draw people out of the darkness and into the Light of the World! Now is the time for Christ-followers to be drawn out of routine religion and into Spirit-led awakening!
You may not remember Moses’ mother’s name, Jochebed. In Hebrew it means “the glory of the Lord.”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” –Ephesians 3:20. Let the God of Moses work in you and draw you out of everything that hinders His Spirt form releasing His glory in and through you!
I am not a pastor, but the church secretary of a small congregation of grateful believers in Jesus Christ. I have listened to your daily thoughts and words from God’s Holy Word. I have been inspired in so many ways and share the messages to all my Facebook friends from each post. May God bless you, Pastor John David Walt, and may the words be received in each of those who hear. Thank you for your obedience in delivering messages of hope to each of us!
My daily life isn’t really right if I don’t start my mornings with listen to the Wake up call. A few mornings I have to do something or go to an appointment before I have a chance to listen to the Wake up Call and my day just isn’t nearly as good.