Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Exodus 18 before reading the devotional below.
I have no idea how they found each other in the desert with no cell phones (since I can’t find my husband in the Target without one…), but Moses and his father-in-law manage to reconnect in the wilderness. Moses fills him in on your basic report back to the family: plagues, parting of a sea, narrow escape, and food falling from the sky. (That would make for one fascinating Christmas letter…). His father-in-law is obviously convinced that Moses is following the right God after hearing all this and he offers a sacrifice to the Lord.
Then the father-in-law offers some advice after watching Moses in action: stop trying to do all this yourself! In yesterday’s post we saw that Moses needed help holding up his arms to win the battle against the Amalekites, and now we see that the problem is happening on a daily basis. Moses follows this wise advice (always a good idea) and assembles a team to help him lead the people and settle their disputes.
Here’s your freedom for today: you find freedom when you let go of what’s not working. Moses could have felt insecure hearing his father-in-law say he couldn’t handle the job himself. He could have dug his heels in and tried to prove himself. But he was on the road to burnout, and that’s not a good place for any leader. Moses found freedom when he was able to let go of his way of doing things and follow the wisdom of his father-in-law. He left the burden he was carrying behind and stepped into a system that worked better for everyone. What old systems do you need to let go of in order to step into freedom today?