Prayer Changes Things

Grace for All

Pray Always

So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord.

Exodus. 10:18

The book of Exodus is about redemption, specifically the redemption of God's people from slavery in Egypt. The nation of Israel was providentially led to Egypt, but over the course of 400 years became enslaved by the Egyptians. They still believed in and worshipped Yahweh, but had lost faith that He would ever deliver them from their fate.

God delivered Israel in a way that tangibly demonstrated His power to both Israel and to the Egyptians, The Egyptians worshiped a variety of nature-gods and attributed to their powers the natural phenomena they saw in the world around them. There was a god of the sun, of the river, of childbirth, of crops, and so forth.

God visited 10 plagues on Egypt, each of which was a demonstration of His power over a specific Egyptian deity. God is sovereign and all powerful. He didn't need men to accomplish His plan, but He chose a man named Moses to be His spokesman to the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Each of the plagues followed the same path: Moses demands that Pharaoh release the Israelites and warns him of the plague to come if he does not. Pharaoh refuses and the plague happens. He then tells Moses he will let the people go if Moses asks God to end the plague. Moses does so and the plague ends, Pharaoh changes his mind, and the whole process starts over.

Today's scripture happens after the 8th plague. In repudiation of the Egyptian gods of agriculture, God sent swarms of locusts to destroy all the nation's crops and vegetation. Again, Pharaoh told Moses he would let the people go if Moses asked God to remove the locusts. Our scripture describes Moses doing that.

Pharaoh again changed his mind, and the process would repeat itself two more times before He finally let the nation of Israel leave Egypt.

There are many lessons for us from Exodus, but what can we learn about prayer? For one, God is in complete control, but sometimes He uses us to enact his plans. We find our purpose in God's plans through constant and persistent communication with Him - prayer.

Next, we may not have all the details of the plan, but we know God is still working, and we need to be persistent and consistent in our prayers and in our actions.

Also, God pays attention to our prayers and our intercession may change God's mind. James, in his New Testament letter writes, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Prayer is a gift from God. We should pray often, not only to make our heartfelt desires and feelings known to God, but to listen and be ready to act.

Prayer:

Father, thank you for the gift of prayer. Thank you for the gift of salvation that makes it possible. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Cliff McCartney

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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