And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat (Numbers 11:18, KJV).
Up until this point in Scripture, Moses was a successful leader. Everything seemed to be going his way, working smoothly, and he had the favor of Israel. All of a sudden, he was faced a demand he couldn’t deliver; it was a circumstance much bigger than him (Numbers 11:4–14).
Moses finds himself “stuck” in a sense—he’s lost his momentum. There are many reasons why we lose our momentum. Our job is to find out what stops us and avoid it so we can keep moving forward in God.
There were a few folks who had jumped on the bandwagon with Israel when escaping Egypt. They started to lust after that which the Lord had deliver them from. The Israelites, instead of turning a deaf ear to their grumblings, started to listen. In time, they began to grumble about what was left back in Egypt compared to what they had in the wilderness. They got their eyes off of the Lord.
When we realize we’ve lost momentum, we need to refocus on the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1). Our focus can never be on the world or the circumstances around us. We can get overwhelmed at the task at hand, but don’t let we can’t do get in the way of what we can do for God.
God spoke to Moses and told him He would provide enough flesh for the people to eat for a month (Numbers 11:21). But, instead of rejoicing, Moses started to question God in how he was going to be able to accomplish this (Numbers 11:22–23). We should step out in faith to do what God asks us to do and then allow God to work at what He can do. Moses learned that after he went to God in prayer, obedience was His next step.
The moment we decided to follow Jesus, we opened ourselves up to spiritual attack. Our adversary is the devil and he is like a lion seeking whom he may destroy (I Peter 5:8). We must hold onto everything we can in God when the enemy tries to attack. We need to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7).
If we combat the devil’s attacks, he will begin to fight, but then he will see the force of the One who is always with us. We will be victorious in Jesus—greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (I John 4:4). The greatest weapon we have at our disposal is the Word of God. Even when we can’t quote all of the Scripture, if we use what we know, even the name Jesus can bring victory!
God owns everything; nothing belongs to us. The whole earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof (Psalms 24:1). On days when everything is going our way, we accept this truth. But, when things get tough, we face trials, and not everything easy, we try to take back ownership of things that never belonged to us in the first place. Instead of trusting in God and allowing His perfect will to be manifested in our lives, we try to take control and use the resources God’s placed in our life improperly.
Today, we need to realize what God has done in our life. And, we need to return some things back to Him that we didn’t pay for! His Scripture tells us to cast every care upon Him (I Peter 5:7). It’s time to allow God to do the work He’s already said He would do, and allow Him to give us the strength to keep our momentum.