God Hears Your Groaning

Have you had a moment this summer where unexpected things came at you when you already had so many things going on?

My parents, who are retired, live in La Mesa. They are in their mid-to-late 70s. It is one of the reasons why I moved to San Diego. But last week, my dad was driving and got into a car accident. By God's grace, he is fine, but the car was totaled. It was deemed a total loss.

Furthermore, it meant I was on the phone with the insurance company and car rental company, trying to figure out what to do to replace the car. Because it was so unexpected, financially, they were not in a place to just buy another car. So that led to deeper questions about money. So now, an accident led to questions about finances and their future.

Have you been there? Where one thing opens up something deeper?

To be honest, it got me a little stressed. I felt like, if I had nothing else going on, I could handle it, but it really stretched my bandwidth. It forced me to make decisions I didn't have much time to sit on and plan. It made me groan: Why is this happening right now?

Anyone resonate?

Exodus 2, verses 23-25, is about the origin story of Moses. I'll be getting into his life for the next month with my devotionals. Really excited about that! So let me read this for us:

During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

- Exodus 2:23-25

The Israelites were in slavery for 400 years. They had been groaning and crying out for help for 400 years. And the passage says, God heard their groaning. Now, off the bat, I'm sure some of us might be wondering, what took God so long to intervene? Why wait for 400 years? That will require a longer time to explain but simply put, we are to trust in God's sovereignty and his mystery that he makes all things beautiful in his time. Also, it is true and a truth that God was still working in the midst of the 400 years, but again, Exodus is about the origin story of Moses.

So today's key thing I want us to be encouraged by is that God heard their groaning. God saw the people, and God knew what was happening. Therefore, as we will see next week, God prepares Moses to rescue them from slavery.

Friends, I want to ask you today, do you really believe that God hears your groaning? Do you trust that? Do you have faith that He hears you?

Well, how do I know, how do you know if you really believe that?

If so, you will pray to Him and be in a relationship with Him, versus trying to be self-sufficient and doing things without Him.

So for me, while trying to figure out what to do about the accident, initially I didn't act like God heard my groaning because I was just doing the motions without praying and asking God to help.

Listen, whatever is happening to you is happening for you, God is not surprised. But there is a purpose. And it may simply be for me to learn again that I need to keep talking to God. I need to keep trusting in Him by relying on Him.

God hears your groaning today. Would you take a moment to talk to Him? God knows what is happening in your life.

Trust Him by talking to Him. Amen.

Pastor Sean

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