Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 8 verse 15:
"But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to [Moses and Aaron], as the Lord had said."
The desire to escape pain is a real motivator in getting people to stop self-destructive habits temporarily, but it does not in and of itself lead to deep and lasting life transformation unless accompanied by an absolute surrender of the will to God.
Pharaoh is Exhibit A in this. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked that the Israelites be given permission to go and worship in the wilderness. Pharaoh refused and so brought forth a plague of blood on the river and a plague of frogs on the land. Pharaoh relented, but as soon as the blood and frogs ceased, his heart was hardened again. He would go through the same ritual of half-conversion and then relapse ten times, until finally his family, his army, and his country had all been decimated. All because he would not allow his heart to be truly changed.
Real change does not happen without total surrender of the will and life to God. This means a radical reorientation of life. For me it meant dropping out of school, changing cities, and moving in with an eighty-some-odd year-old Baptist deacon who I knew wasn't going to get me into trouble. Your transformation may call for something even more radical. If so, do what is necessary; your life and the life of your family depend on it.
Do not end up like Pharaoh.
In the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862, Ulysses S. Grant received a request for terms of surrender from the fort's commanding Confederate officer, Simon Bolivar Buckner. Grant wrote back saying, "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted."
That's pretty much the same thing God says to everyone of us.
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