I have been reading in Numbers lately. Yeah, not straight through 
My bible reading plan gives you about four chapters at a times and jumps around quite a bit. So, one day I’m in Psalms, next in the New Testament, and now, in Numbers. I am always amazed how God does two things:
- Gives me a fresh word or thought from some passage I’ve read a million times;
- How reading each day draws me closer to Him and also increases my desire to know Him more.
After you’ve been a Christian for awhile, you sometimes get lazy. You skip a few days. You tell yourself things like, “Oh yeah, that fire and cloud story; I know all about that.” You take God for granted. Okay, maybe it’s just me who does that. {Confession is good for the soul! We on the Protestant side could learn a few things from our Catholic brothers and sisters.} This topic of confession is a “Look-there’s-a-bird!” moment, my thanks to Patrick Lencioni. {Google him, he’s pretty funny and has a number of good things to say about leadership, work, life}. But, I digress.
In Numbers 9, verses 15-23, to be exact, we find God leading His people. How? “This was the regular pattern—at night the cloud changed to the appearance of fire. When the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel followed it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel camped.” Basically when the cloud lifted and moved, then would move. Then stay wherever they were, whether it was two days, a month, or a year. (v. 22). I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wish following God was that simple. I don’t know if I’d call moving every two days, two months, or two years easy, but I’m drawn to the clearness and certainty of it all. “Yep, the cloud’s a moving, time to pack up Jethro!” Okay, no doubts, no confusion. Simple enough. In our American hustle and bustle, I wonder if God did make us a cloud by day and fiery cloud by night would we even notice it? If we did, would we follow it?
Now, having said that, I do think God has made many, many things clear to us. I think we make it complicated; we think way too hard about it. We all know the Lord’s Prayer right? “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those we sin against us.”
Do we actually do that ladies?
Do we forgive our husbands when they sin against us? Or our children, co-workers, siblings, or parents?
Do we forgive ourselves?
I challenge you to ponder these questions today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pam Bass is a wife, mom, and licensed Christian counselor, who has helped hundreds of people over the last 23 years. She desires wives especially to be cognizant of the way the American culture can influence our stated Christian values. Through her blog, she hopes to encourage women (in particular) to know and trust what God tells us in His word. Find out more at www.pambass.com