Excuses Make You Fearful
“The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road!
A fierce lion is in the streets!” Proverbs 26:13 (NKJV)
Meet Carlos, who was raised in an abusive home by a father who was gone most of the time. The few occasions that his father, who was a traveling salesman, spent at home were filled with torment and anguish for Carlos and his other siblings. Carlos cannot remember when his father became an alcoholic, but he remembers vividly the first time his father beat him to a pulp. This incident has never left him because his crime paled in comparison to the punishment that was given to him.
On this particular occasion, his father had specifically instructed him to do his homework when he came back from school. This was something that his father always talked about during the few times that he was at home. Carlos had struggles in completing his English homework because his parents were not native English speakers. The situation was aggravated by the fact that his father was never at home and his mother was working all the time. Being the first among four siblings, Carlos had no older sibling to look up to. His father thought yelling and beating him was providing a solution to the challenges he was having with his English homework. This explains why when his father returned home that evening drunk and disoriented, he inquired if he had done his homework. When he learned that Carlos had not completed his homework, he took out his leather belt and beat him to the point where he almost passed out.
What saved Carlos that day was the timely intervention of his mother. She had been watching her husband beat her son mercilessly, and at one point, she could not take it any longer. Without any other options, she threw herself between her husband and her son. Her action caused her husband to stop abusing their son. But the damage was done somehow, because twenty years later, Carlos was a grown-up man, married with his own children, and was beginning to manifest some of the tendencies of his father.
Carlos was afraid to be a father because his father had been abusive; he felt that he did not have what it takes to be a successful father. The fear was so paralyzing that after he got married, he did not only delay having children, but it was also something that he did not even want to talk about. His wife wanted them to have children, but Carlos would not even entertain the thought of being a father. As time went on, the began to drift apart because this issue became a thorn in their marriage.
The Devastating Consequences of Fear
When you make excuses, they will make you fearful, and you will make the wrong decisions. Let us start with the first couple and see how fear and making excuses plunged the entire human race into sin. Adam and Eve had an opportunity to have uninterrupted fellowship with God, but they chose to obey the devil rather than God. Why? Because of fear that God was keeping something from them. The excuse to disobey God had many different components to it, as we are going to discover soon. Adam and Eve felt that trusting God one hundred percent was something that they could not afford to do.
Let us see what the devil told Eve and how she responded to his suggestion that God was trying to prevent them from becoming like Him:
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’
“And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”’
“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” Genesis 3:1-7 (NKJV)
Possible excuses Eve might have given
Based on the passage above, once can make an assumption that Eve made the following excuses before eating the forbidden fruit:
· The serpent was too smart for her. It is clearly written that the serpent was the most cunning creature God had made. Eve must have felt that it was not her fault that God had created this type of cunning, crafty, and smart creature and placed it in the garden to tempt her.
· God was being too restrictive. Why would God prevent them from acquiring the knowledge of good and evil? Eve must have reasoned that if the knowledge of good and evil is good enough for God, it would be equally good for them.
· She was hungry. There is no indication of how Eve ended up by the forbidden tree. It is written that “the woman saw that the tree was good for food.” Eve must have reasoned that she was hungry, and nobody would fault her for satisfying her hunger by eating the fruit. After all, her ability to be hungry was placed in her by the creator. This is the way she was created, and she had to obey the hunger pangs she was feeling.
· The fruit was too appealing to the eyes. The fruit was too attractive to Eve. She must have felt that it was not her fault that the fruit was so attractive. How could God say that they should not eat the fruit yet make it so attractive? Eve excused herself because it was not her fault that the tree was too attractive.
· There is nothing wrong with being wise. Eve reasoned that there was nothing wrong in desiring to be wise. How can seeking wisdom be wrong? Was the desire to seek for wisdom not put in her by God in the first place?
· She was not there when the commandment was given. When God gave the commandment, Eve was not yet created. The commandment was given to Adam, and he apparently must have communicated it to Eve. This explains why Eve added that God had instructed them not to touch the fruit. This was not in the original commandment. It is an indication that the information might not have been accurately transmitted to Eve, or she was just trying to justify why she had to eat the fruit. According to her, God had not only prohibited them from eating the fruit, but He had prevented them from even touching the fruit. How would a good and loving God give such a command? The suggestion from the devil made more sense because Eve allowed her circumstances to inform her decision instead of what God had instructed them.
Adam was extremely fearful
You may be wondering why I think Adam was extremely fearful. Before we get into it, let us first of all consider Adam’s interaction with God before Eve arrived at the scene:
“Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’
“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’” Genesis 2:15-18 (NKJV)
God specifically instructed Adam not to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was the person in charge and was not expected to just pass the information to Eve but to ensure that both of them obeyed it.
Yet Adam chose to obey his wife rather than God. He was afraid to displease his wife. The devil understood the power of a woman over a man. This explains why he passed through Eve to get Adam. We are going to see later on that Adam thought hiding behind his wife’s action and making excuses was going to vindicate him.
If you are wondering if Adam had a justification for allowing his wife to mislead him, you should wonder no more. Adam could have said no and displeased his wife, yet he chose to please his wife and displease God. Why was it too difficult for Adam to tell Eve that eating that fruit had been forbidden by God?
Consider the case of Job
Here is the case of another man who was tempted by the devil through his wife. The devil understood that the easiest way for him to get to Job was through his wife. But the devil was no match for Job. Here is what transpired:
“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’
“But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” Job 2:7-10 (NKJV)
Job did not try to be politically correct with his wife. He did not try to avoid offending her. When you read what he said, his language is not soft at all. He compared his wife to those foolish women who only accept good things from God, and when times became tough, they back out.
Job was able to resist the devil successfully because he cherished God’s Word over his feelings and circumstances. He risked offending his wife rather than cursing God and dying.
If you think it was not a matter of life and death, all you need to do is look at the life of mighty Samson. He was brought down by a woman whom he trusted. Here is what we are told happened:
“Then she said to him, ‘How can you say, “I love you,” when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.’ And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart, and said to her, ‘No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.’” Judges 16:15-17 (NKJV)
Before this sad ending for Samson, he had done great exploits for God. Samson was so strong that he killed one thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. At one point, he pulled up and carried the entire gate of a city and dumped it somewhere else. This very Samson foiled all attempts by the Philistines to capture him. But his days were numbered because he failed to do what he was supposed to do. He lingered around a compromising situation. He was in the enemy camp and let down his guard.
The woman Delilah nagged, pressed, and pestered him until his defenses cracked and crumbled. Then the unthinkable happened, as reported below:
“When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.’ So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ So he awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!’ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
“Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.”
Judges 16:18-22 (NKJV)
Samson had a mighty fall, and his eyes got plucked out because he allowed a woman to mislead him. He was afraid to displease her. In an effort to please her and show his love for her, he sacrificed his life.
The devastating consequences of walking in fear
We will never know what would have happened if Adam and Eve decided to come clean when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead, we are told that they became afraid and hid. Here is what transpired:
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
“He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’
“And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’
“The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’
“Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’
“The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” Genesis 3:8-13 (NIV)
Note that God started the interrogation with Adam. It was Adam that God had given the command to. He was expected to obey the commandment and pass the information to Eve.
But Adam started complaining and giving excuses. His response was that the woman God gave him caused him to disobey God. Adam was saying that he considered his wife’s request to be more important than God’s command. This is the very Adam that got excited when Eve was presented to him. Now she was being blamed for being the cause of his disobedience.
When Eve was asked why she ate the fruit, she too refused to take responsibility. She blamed the devil. According to Eve, the serpent was to blame. But we know that it was Eve who chose to let her eyes and desires mislead her. She saw that the fruit was attractive, good for food, and would make her be like God. Here was her opportunity to say what truly motivated her, but she backed out. Instead, she gave excuses and blamed the devil.
What a sad end for the first couple! We will never know what the turn of events would have been had Adam and Eve chosen not to give excuses but instead took responsibility for their actions. It is unfortunate that Adam and Eve refused to take responsibility but made excuses that made an already bad situation worse.
This is being brought up to make us understand that making excuses and refusing to take responsibility for our actions does not serve us. It is one of the worst things people do to themselves. They are battling addictions, some are unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives, yet they make excuses for their drinking, laziness, and ingratitude.
But, we have an excellent example of other people who refused to make excuses even when all odds were against them.
My hope is that you will stop making excuses by learning from some of these heroes of our faith. Even if you are not yet a faith person, you should learn from these stories, and learn how to overcome your fear and do what is right. If you can learn how to stop making excuses and instead focus on solutions, your life will take a turn for the better. You will become unstoppable when you refuse to make excuses.
Why Joseph refused to make excuses
The life of Joseph fascinates me a lot. There are many lessons in his life that have applications for us today. Here is a young man who was betrayed by his own brothers and sold into slavery. He was seventeen years old when he was taken away from his family and carried off to Egypt as a slave and sold a second time.
Joseph had every reason to make excuses and get into a depression. The odds were against him. God had revealed to him that he was going to be a leader, but now he was a slave, working for his master Potiphar without pay. You might think that Joseph would use this injustice as an excuse not to serve his master well. Instead, we are told the following report about him being successful:
“The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.
“Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.” Genesis 39:2-6 (NKJV)
Because Joseph refused to make any excuses and worked diligently, his master rewarded him by putting him in charge of all his business affairs. The other thing is that God was with him since Joseph did not allow bitterness, anger, and vengeance to consume his heart.
Many people in his situation would have made all sorts of excuses, because of the injustice that had been perpetuated against him. This is not to say that what had happened to Joseph was correct. Nobody should be subjected to slavery or be betrayed by his brothers. Nobody should work for no pay either, nor should anyone work for no pay.
But what is more important is that you must be able to see the bigger picture and understand how God uses every circumstance for our good. These days, many give excuses and blame their parents, environment, society, and many other things. Some are working, but not putting in their best because of poor work conditions, low pay, and many different reasons. No matter what is going on, while you are trying to figure out what to do, you must make sure that you are doing your best and not just focusing on what is not going right. Never forget, that part of the reason you are working for a particular company is to train for what lies ahead.
If you remain faithful in your current situation, no matter how much you have been cheated or wronged. Remember whatever you have been defrauded of will be given back many more times in the future. Therefore, you must not allow the momentary setbacks, challenges, and difficulties to distract you. Instead of making excuses, look for solutions because each challenge is an opportunity to provide solutions.
Joseph was handsome and good looking; this was not his fault because that is the way he was born. The issue of his handsomeness is being brought up because we are told that it led to the following challenge for him:
“And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me.’
“But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’
“So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.
“But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.” Genesis 39:7-12 (NKJV)
This woman was bold enough to ask Joseph to commit adultery. This would have been an excellent opportunity for Joseph to make an excuse for this suggestion to sleep with his master’s wife. Remember that Joseph was a slave and had no right to say no to his master’s wife. This woman had the right to do what she wanted with him. Yet Joseph refused to allow fear to push him to sin against God. He would rather please God and displease his master’s wife.
Joseph refused to make excuses and take advantage of the situation. Committing adultery with this woman might have brought him some favors, but Joseph was ready and willing to suffer for what he stood for. He could have slept with her and said that this woman initiated the process. But Joseph understood that obeying God was more profitable on all grounds.
The following Scriptures were written thousands of years after this incident occurred, but from the look of things, Joseph already knew the truth of them.
Adultery is a terrible idea. Don’t do it. Here is a vivid description of what will happen to anybody who commits adultery. It is a lengthy passage, but I am including it to underscore how important it is to stay away from adultery:
“For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
but in the end she is bitter as gall,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
She gives no thought to the way of life;
her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.
“Now then, my sons, listen to me;
do not turn aside from what I say.
Keep to a path far from her,
do not go near the door of her house,
lest you lose your honor to others
and your dignity to one who is cruel,
lest strangers feast on your wealth
and your toil enrich the house of another.
At the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent.
You will say, ‘How I hated discipline!
How my heart spurned correction!
I would not obey my teachers
or turn my ear to my instructors.
And I was soon in serious trouble
in the assembly of God’s people.’
“Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?
“For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
the cords of their sins hold them fast.” Proverbs 5:3-22 (NIV)
Joseph understood that he had a future that he had to live for. There was no point in sacrificing the promise for him to lead with momentary pleasure. He was not going to compromise no matter what.
Flee from sin
Joseph did not try to hang around the sin. We are told that he fled away from this woman who was trying her best to pull him down. Samson could not make it because he was living with Delilah. In other words, he was hanging around sin. No wonder the devil finally got to him through Delilah. Joseph fled. You, too, should flee away from sexual immorality because it will destroy you. This sounds so simple, yet many people do not take this advice seriously:
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)
Fear the Lord
Joseph understood the importance of the fear of the Lord:
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)
No wonder he was able to provide solutions to the problem that was plaguing Egypt. The solution that he eventually provided is what propelled him to the top.
Hate evil
It is not enough to say that you fear God. Joseph understood that to demonstrate his fear for God, he had to hate evil. Remember that he told his master’s wife that he could not commit such a sin against God. For it is written that:
“To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.” Proverbs 8:13 (NIV)
Joseph truly feared God, and this was demonstrated by his hatred of the evil of committing adultery with his master’s wife. Many today claim that they know God, love Him, and fear Him, yet their actions do not align with their words. These individuals give one excuse or another for allowing evil to triumph in their lives. But when you take a close look, it is just because they have allowed the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and the lust of the flesh to take the upper hand. Every sin that we commit is either related to money, sex, or power. These three triggers tie closely with the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and the lust of the flesh. We are without excuse for allowing sin to reign in our mortal bodies.
It gets darker before daylight
When we talk of not making excuses, the expectation is that you will get a reward for doing the right thing. Many people get entirely disoriented when they do their best and get rewarded with evil. How can you, for example, explain why somebody can stop to give help to a stranded stranger on the road and end up getting robbed, raped, or killed? This does not make any sense!
This is similar to what happened to Joseph. After he resisted and overcame the adultery temptation, he was falsely accused, and his master did the unthinkable to him. We were told that his master did the following to him:
“Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.” Genesis 39:20-23 (NKJV)
Even though Joseph was falsely accused and dumped in prison, he did not complain or give excuses. We are told that God was with him and he was placed in charge of the other prisoners. As the story continues, Joseph got up one morning and found two of his fellow prisoners sad and downcast. He reached out to them and asked what was going on. The two prisoners had had two different dreams the previous night, and these dreams were troubling them. Joseph interpreted their dreams free of charge. It is fantastic to note that Joseph did not focus on his injustice and imprisonment but showed empathy toward other prisoners. No wonder he prospered even though he was in prison.
No matter where you are and what you are going through, making excuses will not help you at all. While you may think that it is justifiable to make excuses, you should resist the temptation to do that. Focus on the big picture and think about the future that lies ahead of you.
How you react today will determine what will happen tomorrow. Take, for example, that if Joseph had neglected the plight of the two prisoners who were in distress, he would have been shooting himself in the foot. His future role as the prime minister of Egypt was a result of how he interpreted the dreams of the two prisoners.
There is no way Joseph would have known that his actions were shaping his future. But what he understood is that when there is a problem, instead of complaining, the best thing to do is to look for ways to provide solutions.
Now you are wondering how all this relates to you and what to do with it. Don’t panic! The purpose of this book is to help you learn how to avoid making mistakes and hopefully completely eradicate excuses from your life.
You are called to walk by faith and not sight
Many people operate based on the dictates of what they see, feel, touch, smell, and taste. They allow their five senses to lead them. This is a recipe for disaster. We have been called to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is not blind following or leaping over a dark chasm. Many people have a distorted view of faith that has nothing to do with the biblical definition of faith.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV) (emphasis added)
Faith is not blind trust or wishful thinking. It is not anti-intellectual because faith has evidence and substances. It is the physical manifestation of the invisible. We know that the subatomic world is not visible with the naked eye, yet all matter is made up of this invisible energy.
This implies that faith is not make-believe because it is based on substance and dependent on an “object.” There is no such thing as faith in faith itself. Therefore, your faith is only as good as the object of your faith. For example, you can have all the faith you want in a broken chair, and it will not carry you. Try putting your faith in a faulty plane, and you will be shocked by what will happen.
The faith you are being called to have is faith in God, and the Word of God. This is what the Bible says about God and His Word:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-3 (NKJV)
The Word of God is eternal, and we must believe, trust, obey, and act on it. The Word is God, and God is faithful. There are many examples in Hebrews 11 that talk about how people exercised their faith in God.
Here is the case of Noah, who refused to make excuses but obeyed God and did what he was instructed by God to do:
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” Hebrews 11:7 (NKJV)
We are told that the entire world was wicked, and God instructed Noah to build an ark on dry ground. People had not yet seen any rain, yet God was promising to destroy the earth through rain. Noah could have given an excuse that he was the only righteous person or that the idea of rain was ridiculous. But he chose to trust God's word and to do what he was asked to do. Because of his obedience, Noah and his family got saved when the entire world got wiped out by the flood.
Here is another insight into the life of Joseph; he was a man of faith because:
“By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.” Hebrews 11:22 (NKJV)
Joseph believed the word of God concerning the future of the Israelites. This explains why he could flourish in Egypt and did not give any excuses when things did not go the way they were supposed to. God had given the promise of blessing the entire world through Abraham. But there was a condition attached to it. His descendants had to go down to Egypt, where they would be enslaved for more than four hundred years. Abraham passed this information to Isaac, who passed it to Jacob, and he passed it to his twelve sons. Joseph was one of the twelve sons. Asking that his bones be taken out of Egypt when the time came is an indication that he understood God’s word and believed it.
The parents of Moses acted boldly and did not allow fear to cripple them. Before Moses was born, there was a decree that every male child who was Hebrew had to be killed. All the other parents obeyed this decree because they were afraid of disobeying Pharaoh’s command. But the parents of Moses took a different course of action:
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” Hebrews 11:23 (NKJV)
The parents of Moses were able to see the potential in him when they had him, and by faith, they refused to obey Pharaoh’s command to kill their son. This was a huge risk, but they had to take it because they were not afraid of the verdict of Pharaoh. The parents of Moses saw in him the potential of God to be a deliverer to his people.
Here is a situation where most parents were allowing their children to be killed, yet the parents of Moses focused on looking for and providing a solution. The mistake most of us make is that we allow what is popular to determine our actions. This should not be the case. Our marching orders do not come from the culture. We must look into the Word of God to get instructions on what to do. One will not be mistaken to infer that the parents of Moses understood God’s promise of delivering them and taking them out of Egypt. They demonstrated their trust in the promise of God by disobeying the command of Pharaoh.
Actions speak louder than words. What you do reveals what you believe. What you do not do equally reveals what is truly important to you. If you give excuses and fail to do what you are supposed to do, it is an indication that whatever you have failed to do is not as important as you say it is.
Do not fear
The major takeaway from this chapter is that you should not be afraid, no matter what you are going through, or whatever situation you find yourself in. Let the Word of God guide you to make the right decision. When you put your trust in God’s Word and obey it, you will be amazed by how far you are going to go. Excuses may make you feel good momentarily, but in the long run, they will not help you at all. Therefore, you should stop making excuses. Even when conditions out of your control appear to place limitations on you, it is vital to consult the Word of God, and take your marching orders from there. You will not be justified if you say the law of the country, or whatever the reason is, caused you to act in fear.
What you should be focusing on is what the Word of God is teaching concerning the situation that you find yourself in. To be victorious like Joseph, and the parents of Moses, it is crucial that you do what they did. They did not allow the circumstances surrounding them to determine their actions. They acted based on the word of God. They were able to come with solutions in the midst of challenging and dire circumstances. You have what it takes to come out strong; don’t be afraid.
