What Adventure is Waiting for You?
Scripture: Exodus 16 1-36
Program Ideas
Invite those who are able to go for a hike or walk before having a picnic in a state park. For those less mobile, drive thru to see nature and all the great things provided for us in God’s creation. For the younger women investigate scheduling a horseback riding experience.
If none of the ideas for an outside adventure is possible, set up your meeting space to represent nature and the outdoors. Have pictures of trees, ponds, rivers, or lakes around the room. Place flowers and leaves on the table. Show a nature documentary that features God’s creation. There are many on YouTube. One site is BBC Earth.
Where is Your Joy?
Do you ever find yourself not being able to find joy in anything? You try a new diet and for the first day it is great, but then by the second day, you have lost your joy in it and you revert back to your old way of eating. Maybe you found that item of clothing your wardrobe had been missing. It is perfect and makes you feel great. Then you wash it and something bad happens to it and it no longer fits.
You may have someone in your life who is like the donkey Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. They are always seeing gloom and doom, nothing is great, everything is wrong. The Israelites were much like that. Exodus 16 tells us the story of the Israelites grumbling in the wilderness for food. Chapter 15 closed with them grumbling for drinkable water. Moses takes a piece of wood to make the bitter water drinkable. That was three days into their desert journey—three days. Their joy of leaving Egypt did not last long.
Chapter 16 now brings us to them being a month and a half into the journey to Sinai and the Israelites are grumbling again. They say that they were better off in Egypt where they had pots of meat and an abundance of bread to eat. They thought their life was easier and therefore better when they were slaves. They thought that if they had not turned to God they would not be going through their present struggles. How quickly they forgot the difficulties of their old life.
Sometimes even mature Christians get hit with the deception that life over in “Egypt” would be more fun, more satisfying, more struggle–free than the present difficulties they are facing. But it is all deception, a way to avoid having to deal with the sometimes harsh realities of life in the present.
Sometimes when we try something new, we love it because it is exciting. But then we lose our joy for the new thing and find it was not what we expected. We can be like the Israelites. We forget the issues of the past and want to go back to the old ways.
Faith is our most amazing and valuable asset. It is also often the most underused asset we have. Our faith is what should bring us joy. Our faith is the great adventure we should be on as we trust the Lord for each day.
Chapter 16 of Exodus would be a sad chapter if this is where God left His children, but He doesn’t. The chapter goes on to tell us that Yahweh does not leave His children to starve to death in the desert. He hears their grumbling and tells Moses that they will have both bread and meat to eat. Yahweh will rain down bread from heaven every morning and serve meat/quail in the evenings. Yahweh provides. They just had to have faith. As He provided for the Israelites, He will also provide for us when we put our faith in Him.
Discussion
Ask the women to discuss these questions.
- In your own words, what does faith mean to you?
- What is the biggest thing your faith has helped you overcome?
- Who is someone in your life (past or present) who has been an example of faith? How has their faith been an inspiration to you?
- Does faith come natural to you, or do you find yourself having to work on it?
- Do you rely more on your faith or your gut instincts when it comes to major decisions in life?
