Have you ever lost your keys?

If you are human and have ever used one, I would say that is about 100% of us. Well, stats many times will read 99.9% to be safe.

I had a dream this morning that interrupted another dream. It then woke me up with the distinct impression I should write it and share it. I still had 1/2 hour before my alarm went off too lol!

I was standing on my front stairs, a few steps down from the door, looking all over the porch for my key. I looked under the mat, under the planters, and I even peered down into the garden to see if it had fallen over the side. After looking everywhere I could think of I stood up, facing the door. When I lifted my head, I was eye level to the doorknob and the key was in the door lock, right in front of my face. It had been there the whole time.

The key wasn't your standard house key but the old style skeleton key. I could see around it because the opening of the hole was big enough to look through to the other side. When I looked through I didn't see my house but a beautiful scene with a tree and golden light around it.

This is the impression I got from it. We look all over the place to find keys to our life, but the key is right in front of us and never moves. It is God, and God's word, that we are to use. We don't have to search everywhere for it because God put it in a place where we know to look - the Bible. By keeping our eyes locked on it and in front of us, it will keep us centered moving along the path He wants us to go, through the door on the straight path.

Here is the verse I thought of:

" Your word is a lamp for my feet,  a light on my path." 

Psalms 119:105

I never read all of 119 before so I looked it up. But, yeah, that's what it is about. 

Very cool! 

Check it out: PSALMS119

Moses - A Basket Full of Trouble

I was reading a devotional to my son a few days ago, about Moses and disappointment, when something dawned on me. 

At the time of Moses' birth the Pharaoh was ordering all male Hebrew babies to be drowned in the Nile. He was trying to keep the population of his slaves under control. 

Moses' was a Hebrew boy. Shortly after his birth his mom made a decision that not only saved his life but changed the course of the Jewish nation forever.

The Birth of Moses - Exodus 2

1. "Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2. and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 

3. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket[a] 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. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him."

You know...my husband and I had a conversation about a week ago and we were discussing a problem. I found myself saying "It's too big. It has to be given to God."  I heard almost that exact same phrase at church that weekend. (That is pretty cool when that happens, right?)

...The Pharaoh was killing Hebrew babies. That's a pretty big problem. Too big. Moses' mom couldn't fix it on her own.

Verse 3 - "But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket[a] 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."

She knew she couldn't manage the situation any longer on her own. It was time to release the situation to the Lord.

Tar and pitch was used to cover the basket, to keep it afloat. I see this as symbolic for prayer and faith that God will receive our heart's request and take action. Sometimes though an issue is so dear to us that it is hard to let go. The devotional was discussing disappointment Moses' mother felt by having to give her son away, but something else stuck out. She defeated her problem by surrendering to God.

If Moses' mom had a white knuckle death grip on the basket, trying to maintain control, what would have happened? Most likely the baby would have been found and killed.

When we refuse to let go, we cannot expect God to take charge and bring the solution - release the blessing. However, she did let go. She put the basket in the water and took her hands completely off, letting God do His thing.

verse 5-6

"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. 6 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.

Pharaoh's daughter found him and felt sorry for him? She later decided to raise  him as her own (verse 10). 

Who saw THAT coming? Besides God I mean.

I told my son, Moses' mom couldn't have just strolled up to the Pharaoh's daughter and said "Hey, you know I really, really  don't want my baby to be killed, sooooo...want to adopt a Jewish boy"? No. It had to be a God thing.

The best part for the mom, besides Moses' being spared death of course... (Remember that Moses' sister kept watch to see what happened to the baby.)

verses 7-10

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 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. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,[b] saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

She got to care for him anyway! I love a happy ending. 
It's more of a happy beginning, really.

That's how I am trying to visualize my problems now, big or small.  I will (attempt to, haha)  put them in a basket, peel my little fingers off, and push them through the water towards God's receiving hand. (Add a healthy dose of faith and shameless and unceasing prayer.)


To recap:
Put into basket - fingers off  - pray - wait on Him.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."  Luke 11:9-10