Get Rid of Your Frogs TODAY!
May 26, 2023 | by Diana Wade
Lately I have been thinking about the story of Moses and Pharaoh. As you know, God told Moses to give Pharaoh many chances for him to allow His people to leave Egypt. Pharaoh kept saying no, and that resulted in ten plagues that came upon his people. They were: turning their water into blood, frogs, lice, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and ending with the death of their firstborns. His stubbornness caused much suffering in the land.
The one that is interesting to me is the one recorded in the 8th chapter of Exodus. It’s the story of the frogs. The 8th verse in The Message Bible says it like this: “Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron and said, Pray to God to rid us of these frogs. I’ll release the people so that they can make their sacrifices and worship God. Moses said to Pharaoh, Certainly. Set the time. When do you want the frogs out of here, away from your servants and people and out of your houses? You’ll be rid of frogs except for those in the Nile.’” And then Pharaoh said, “Make it tomorrow”.
MAKE IT TOMORROW? This would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad. Did he really want one more night with the frogs? The frogs were in their houses, their beds, their servants’ quarters, their ovens, and even their pots and pans. Wouldn’t a rational person want them to go away now? This story has made me think about the various “frogs” we can have in our lives and wonder why we don’t quickly set them aside. The frogs were the 2nd curse on Egypt, and 8 more followed. If Pharaoh had let them go instead of saying “tomorrow”, maybe his firstborn would never have died.
Pastor Gary played a lot of baseball as a young boy. When he was a preteen he had several friends with whom he played every day in the summer. When they were walking home from the ball field one day, one of the older men in the neighborhood told them that when he saw them coming home tomorrow he would give them a Coke. The next day they were excited to stop by his house for that treat he was going to give them! When they asked him about it he said, “I told you to come tomorrow. This is today, not tomorrow.”
You know what? Tomorrow never comes!
Here's a list of “frogs” that we could put out of our lives. There are so many scriptures that show us the way. It’s as easy as making the decision to do it today—not tomorrow:
OFFENSE: Psalm 119:165 in the Amplified Classic says, "Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble." That's a great promise. We can live our lies unoffended!
UNFORGIVENESS: Mark 11:25 in the King James Version tells us, “when you stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any:” I have often thought I probably wouldn’t pray a long time while standing up, so it’s a quick decision to forgive.
JEALOUSY: Song of Solomon 8:6 tells us that jealousy is “as cruel as the grave”. I think that means that if you live a life being jealous of someone else or something they have, it’s like your life is “dead” all the time. It’s hard to have real joy in our lives if we're always wanting something someone else has. Or maybe we don't want to make the choices they made to get it.
RECORD OF WRONGS: I Corinthians 13:5 in the Amplified Classic tells us that love “pays no attention to a suffered wrong”. On the cross, Jesus asked the Father to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing, but sometimes people DO know what they’re doing and they do it on purpose. We still forgive. I have had people ask me, “Don’t you remember what they did?” My answer to that is yes I do, but I made a conscious decision to not bring it up in my memory all the time. I made a decision to forgive, and after some time, I have only compassion for them.
There are many others I could list, but you see what I’m saying. When we decide to cast the care of our jobs, relationships, money, health, children, family, and friendships on the Lord, a new freedom comes into our soul. No longer do we need to be ruled by and make every decision based on emotions. We make our decisions based on what God tells us in His Word. When we do that, the good emotions—and peace—follow.
So, Pharaoh had a chance to stop all those plagues with the second one—the frogs. His stubborn heart brought devastation to his country, and in the end he let them go anyway. Even then he wanted to bring them back, but God had another plan for Israel.
My daily prayer for you and me is that we choose God’s way. It really is all about choice. I think I say that a lot, but it really is…ALL ABOUT CHOICE.
Love you SO MUCH,
Pastor Diana