May 7, 2025
Moses didn’t leave the mountain with a 10-point action plan. He came down with a glow. He had been with God — and the evidence of that wasn’t in what he built or delivered. It was in who he had become.
His face was radiant, and he didn’t even realize it. There was no striving in it. No urgency to prove that something holy had happened. He had simply spent time with the Lord long enough to be changed.
That’s the kind of obedience I’m learning to pursue again — slowly, imperfectly. Not as a strategy to get results, but as a habit of staying close. I haven’t mastered this. I’m still learning, every day, how to stop measuring my worth by what I produce. How to stop rushing back down the mountain to make something happen. How to stay long enough to be formed.
I’m reminded of a story Paul Tripp once shared in a marriage study. He held up a water bottle, took the cap off, and shook it hard. Then he asked, “Why did water come out of the bottle?” The instinctive answer: “Because you shook it.”
But then he asked it again, slower:
“Why did water come out of the bottle?” Because water was already inside.
When life shakes you — a financial hit, a lost deal, a hard conversation with your spouse or your child — what comes out isn’t caused by the shaking. It reveals what was already there.
Spending time in prayer and in His Word isn’t a performance. It’s preparation. It’s what fills the bottle — so that when pressure comes, what pours out isn’t panic, pride, or fear... but peace, truth, and light.
This week, stay a little longer. Not to “get something” from God — but to be with Him. Even if nothing seems to be changing. Even if the work is waiting. Even if your soul feels quiet. He will change you. From the inside out.
And those around you will see it. Not because you tried harder — but because you were with Him.