Not a hoof left behind

In the natural, this was control concealed as concession. In the spirit, this means only partial deliverance, with pieces of the soul still in chains – you can honour your God but leave something behind in Egypt. Moses understood this immediately, therefore he responded with: “not a hoof will be left behind!”

We are called to die to self and surrender everything to our God. If we leave one hoof in the enemy’s grip, we are not totally free – do not leave your worship in the world’s grip, do not withhold any part of your devotion, do not let the enemy dictate your obedience, do not tolerate any idolatry in your life.

Idolatry? But I do not worship idols? Beloved, putting anything in a higher place than God in your life is exactly that – idolatry. And the sad fact is that we mostly do not recognize that we are doing this. Take the cell phone as an example.

How do most of us interact with that handy little device? We jump up and run to it when it rings – it could, after all, be an important call? Our attention is immediately drawn to it when we receive WhatsApp/email/SMS/Twitter/X/YouTube/Instagram alerts, even if it intrudes on precious time spent with loved ones. We carry it close to us at all times, some even holding it in their hands everywhere they go. Literally everywhere. We sometimes wear it as devices on our wrists or in our ears. We pick it up upon awakening. We scroll late into the night. When we need advice, we run to Google/AI/etc. We play games on it when we are bored.

Can you see that slowly, over time, the cell phone has started stealing our time spent with God? Imagine the deepening your relationship with Him would undergo if you did all the above-mentioned things with our Abba, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and with Holy Spirit?

Pearls to ponder:

Start being intentional with how you use your cell phone. Decide to make time daily/weekly/monthly to be without it, completely. This can be at worship times; at the dinner table; during family time 5-7p.m.; whenever you are visiting someone. Get out in nature or read a book, phone on silent. Decide on the time at night after which you will not be looking at your phone any longer and keep yourself to it. Put a timer on your phone when you play games so that you do not play longer than you intended to. Decide to not reach for your phone first thing in the morning, but to read your Bible first. The ideas here are given as examples, figure out what works best for you – but be intentional, decide and DO.

Credit given to Steve Porter