When I was younger, we would hunt frogs each fall on a late October night that was lit by a full moon. It was an annual ritual that our neighborhood used to enjoy. The men would go out after dark with flashlights, spears, and burlap sacks and head for the farm ponds. The frogs would be gathering in clusters, getting ready to head down into the mud for the winter. They were easy picking! After harvest, the neighbors would gather to eat fried frog legs and pot-blessing, play cards and swap stories about the harvest. It was great food and a good time!
In our reading today we have another story about frogs. Moses had decreed a plague of frogs on the land of Egypt because Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go to worship God. Frogs filled the land. They were in the fields, houses, marketplace, Pharaoh’s palace, and even in the bedrooms! Pharaoh summoned Moses to ask for prayer to God to get rid of those frogs. Moses, trying to be polite, allowed Pharaoh to set the time when the frogs would be gone. Pharaoh’s answer was, “tomorrow”. Why tomorrow? Did Pharaoh want one more night of frog hunting too? Did he enjoy sleeping with the frogs? Maybe one of his magicians had turned one of his kids into a frog? These are some silly questions to ponder about this story! There are more serious ones.
It amazes me that when God offers us freedom to ask Him for anything, (John 14:13) we often answer just like Pharaoh: “tomorrow”. Do we want one more night with our addiction? Do we want to be sick one more night? Do we want one more night to be angry and bitter? Tomorrow never really comes. When we procrastinate, we are saying that we love our sin or problem more than we love God. We want one more night with the frogs!
Ask the Lord to help you break the bondage of procrastination. Sit down with him today and get it taken care of! Frogs may be tasty animals, but you don’t need another night with them!
“Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7
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Ouch! That smarts for the procrastinator, but this week I am dealing with the issue of impatience. I always want to see things done NOW and it seems that the Lord is teaching me the virtues of waiting on Him. In Genesis , where Judah was trying to persuade his father to let the brothers take youngest son,Benjamin, to Egypt during the famine in order to prove their innocence (to Joseph, who they had not recognised yet), he told his father “We could have been and returned twice, in the time that it is taking to decide to allow Benjamin to go to Egypt with us!” So that’s more like what I’m facing today. Patience, patiece. God’s always working on one thing or another in our lives. Patience today, procrastination maybe … tomorrow!
Hey Dad,
Remember the night the canoe tipped over as you were overreaching a little too much? We fell in but I kept ahold of the sack of frogs – That really WAS a night with the frogs – and cold too!