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in the 11th hour God parted the sea. All he needed them to do was to walk in silence.
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Welcome to Rinse Reflect Repeat, the daily podcast inspired by my action-driven devotional
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and guide to reading the Bible through in a year alphabetically. I'm Anita Cordell,
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and each day we'll walk through the Bible discovering how even books like Leviticus and numbers
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speak to our daily lives. These short devotional are here to cleanse our hearts and transform
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our perspectives. So, grab your Bible, open your heart, and let's journey through the living
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water together. It's time to rinse, reflect, and repeat.
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Well, we are walking through Exodus and going through the story of Moses and the title
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for today's devotion is the Battle of Silence. We're on day 68 and we're on March 9th if you're
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following the date. And so today's morning rinse is a little longer. You actually have to read
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five chapters, but they're not super long, but read Exodus 14 through 18, and then come on back
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and let's talk about this title. So the featured verse is Exodus 14, 14. The Lord will fight for you
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while you keep silent. Moses' life was so full of cliffhangers. You know, I mean,
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leading hundreds of thousands of people through the wilderness was no small task. And by the time you
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get here to this moment, he has freed the Israelites and are on their way into the wilderness.
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But not only was Moses called to rescue the people, but he was called to move them to the promised
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land. I mean, there's two parts to that. He was called to rescue them, and he was called to
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get them to the promised land, like leading them through battles, teaching them along the way
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about faith, going to God on their behalf, and dealing with conflicts even within the people,
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and ultimately completing his mission. And scholars will say that it was not supposed to take 40 years,
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but it did, because they were complaining. And it's amazing how that so much can be learned from
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this story. During the battles that the Israelites faced, there is a message that is often overlooked
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though. You know, because while they were out there in the wilderness, they faced a ton of these
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battles. You know, they got freed and rescued from the Egyptians. But when you enter into a whole new
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land and they're trying to cross, there's other people that are defending their areas, their
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territories. And so they faced battles. And there's a message that I want to share with you.
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The first battle in today's morning rinse that we read was when the Egyptians chased them down,
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and they were about to overtake them again. You know, they were faced with, oh my goodness,
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all these people are behind me. And there's a sea in front of me, and I'm trapped by this sea on
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one side and the Egyptian shoulders on the other side. And how scary this moment had to have
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been for them. I mean, can you imagine, you know, hundreds of thousands of Israelites freaking out
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and probably some of them seeing the Egyptians on the horizon in horses and chariots in the whole
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bit. I mean, I would be screaming. I'm like, I would be screaming. I'd be like, help. You know,
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what do we do? And I can imagine that it was a bit chaotic. And while the Israelites though
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were complaining and fearing death, the angel of God and the pillar of cloud moved and stood
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in between the Israelites and the Egyptians so that they could walk across the sea.
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To think that they experienced this in visual impact, it wasn't a movie. It was right then.
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Today's featured verse shows Moses' response. And the Israelites did not need to do anything.
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They didn't need to say anything. They didn't need to do anything except walk in silence
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on the path God opened for them. In the 11th hour, God parted the sea. All he needed them to do
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was to walk in silence. I bet that was so hard, you know, or maybe it was easy for some people as
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they were consuming all of what was going around them. Maybe they walked in silence because they were
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afraid of the walls of water coming down on them or maybe they were walking in silence just
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basically because Moses said, be quiet, don't talk, you don't talk. You know, but all he needed them
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to do was to walk in silence. Then also in today's morning rinse, there's a second battle where
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they were attacked again and this time by the army of Amolec. Miraculously, the Israelites,
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they prevailed in the battle when this was when Moses was on the top of the hill and he
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raised his hands in the air and every time he raised his hands in the air, then the Israelites
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would win. But they began losing when his hands were let down. And so as Moses sat on this rock,
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I'm sure he was praying and talking to God like God, what in the world his action was to sit there
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with his hands in the air. And obviously, you know, he got some help, they held up his hands because
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he got tired, but both examples are victories of God and both examples are when a battle was won
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in the quietness of faith and obedience and that peaceful resolve of silence coupled with action
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that people were quiet in the first one. And Moses, I'm sure, was quiet and silently
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raising his hands on the rock. Can you imagine the Israelites' entire camp silently walking across
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the sea while just so much chaos of the Egyptian army tries to get around the pillar of fire
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in the cloud. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, they turn around and we're watching the horses trying
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to maneuver around and they were trying to get around it as best as they could because they
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wanted to obey the leader. They had to obey the leader. Pharaoh was like, go get them and that's
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what their mission in life was is to go get the Israelites. Then can you imagine Moses sitting
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in kind of, and I use the word peaceful resolve, but I'm sure that he had a confidence to him
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with his hands in the air as the Israelites win another battle. Like one more time they win a battle
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and all he's doing is sitting there with his hands in the air. I can imagine that if you're listening
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to this, you've had experiences where you might be battling something and whether it's, you know,
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trying to raise your children and having struggles with, oh my goodness, they're teething today
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and they're just really extra cranky or there's something going on or my grandbabies, one of them
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deals with food allergies and so the struggle with that and another grandbabie has diabetes and
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so handling and managing insulin and stuff. I can't imagine all the things that my daughter
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and son-in-law deal with on a day-to-day basis and sometimes those day-to-day basis
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challenges can feel like there's this inward battle, whatever we're facing. Maybe there's somebody
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at work that just continually causes strife. Those are like little battles that on a day-to-day basis
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make it feel like it's our world can be very chaotic around us and maybe in those times could it be
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to instead of getting frustrated or instead of raising our voices at the kids or instead of
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complaining to employee one about employee two in the frustrations and the things that we don't
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understand about why people do certain things, could it be time to just sit in silence and just
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talk to God? Maybe you're sitting in silence is, hey, I need about 10 minutes, I'm going to drive
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around and just have a moment where I'm just driving around in my car.
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Could it be, hey, I need 45 minutes of a bath right now because I need a moment of silence?
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Could it be that you just need to sit in silence for just a little? And sitting in silence,
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I'm not going to lie, it is not always easy. It's not like you can separate your whole entire
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world and just go off somewhere and leave the cares behind you in a moment's notice. No,
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that's not how it works. We still have family, we still have a spouse, we still have life going on.
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So it's not always easy. In fact, sitting in silence can actually be its own battle in and of
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itself, but the battle of silence with God will win the wars. So today's challenge to dig deeper
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is to look at your life and is there some chaos going on in your day to day life or is it even
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more of a battle going on like some major struggle that is happening in your world? Have you been
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caught complaining about your situation? My challenge to you is to seek God today in this matter.
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Whatever you're dealing with, seek Him about it. Sit with Him in silence, fight through the battle
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of silence and sit with Him and let your heart hear His voice instead of the chaos around you.
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Even if it's five minutes, if you have to sit, close your eyes and just force yourself
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to hear His voice and focus on His voice instead of the things that are raging around you.
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And then when you pull out your journal and you reflect on today, I am sure I'm pretty confident
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that you're going to have an opportunity at some point today to sit in silence because there
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will be some chaos around you or something struggling that you are faced with. Maybe it's even time
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management struggle, sit in silence, but reflect on that. What is it that God is asking you to be
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silent about? Did you find it difficult to stop complaining about this situation? Did you find it
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difficult to find peace in the storm? Was it even a battle to get to being silent? But once you
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were there in the silence, in that five minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever
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length of time it was when there, maybe it's a challenging phone call that you get today and you
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remember this, push through the battle and see the battle of silence and how that it can win
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the wars. So reflect on that today. Reflect on what it felt like and how it made you feel to sit in
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silence and then write down, was there something that God said to you? Was there some affirmations
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or empowerment that God just brought the peace back to your heart because ultimately when we have
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that peace in our heart, it is going to overflow into other people. And do we want our loved ones
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and friends to feel the overflow of our peace or do we want them to feel the overflow of complaining
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and chaos and lack of peace and complete discord? What is it that we want? And if we are fighting
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the good fight of faith, we sometimes have to fight for silence and fighting for that peace.
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And I can't wait to hear what happens today and whether that battle of silence came to you
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easily or whether it was a battle in and of itself. And I hope that this encourages you and you
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remember today, especially when in futuristic battles come to remember the battle of silence is worth it.
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If you don't have my devotional yet and you're watching this or listening, please go to the
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show notes and order it and I hope that you are encouraged by this also too. When I say evening
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reflection and you are looking for something to write these evening reflections on, my journal
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is the reason why I made it because of years and years and years of note-taking. I know that it
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is so important to go back to those notes. I've read things from 10, 15, 20 years ago and it just
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is so cool to see how much I've grown and things that God has brought me through and it's so
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encouraging. So I encourage you to, if you haven't gotten it, go ahead and get it and also to if you
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haven't joined my Facebook group called Rinse Reflect Repeat Devotional, then come on by and I love
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to read the stories of people who post on there. So please, you encourage my heart when you post and
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so feel free to do that as well. And until tomorrow, keep Rinse Reflecting and Repeating. God bless you.