God’s Moves

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled God's Moves, was written by Katara Patton. I love a good game of Scrabble. After one particular game, my friends named a move after me, calling it a Katara. I'd been trailing the entire game, but at the end of it, with no tiles left in the bag, I made a seven-letter word.

This meant the game was over, and I received 50 bonus points, as well as all the points from all of my opponents' leftover tiles, moving me from last place to first. Now whenever we play and someone is trailing, they remember what happened, and hold out hope for a Katara. Remembering what has happened in the past has the power to lift our spirits and give us hope. And that's exactly what the Israelites did when they celebrated Passover. The Passover commemorates what God did for the Israelites when they were in Egypt, oppressed by Pharaoh and his crew. After they cried out to God, He delivered the people in a mighty way. He told them to put blood on their doorposts so the death angel would pass over their firstborn people and animals.

Then they would be kept safe from death. Centuries later, believers in Jesus regularly take communion as we remember His sacrifice on the cross, providing what we needed to be delivered from sin and death. Remembering God's loving acts in the past gives us hope for today. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Exodus chapter 12, verses 24 through 28. Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, what does this ceremony mean to you, then tell them, it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians. Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. Let's pray. I thank you, God, for all the marvelous works you've done on our behalf. Please help us to remember your faithfulness throughout the ages and rest in your strength when we need hope to keep going. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Toni Collier, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.