Let's now consider some practical lessons from the narrative we considered in our prior lesson from Exodus 8 regarding the plague of frogs.

1. Only those who are foolish & stubborn will intentionally choose to spend another night with the frogs.
Why did Pharaoh say "tomorrow"? Stubbornness! Don't we sometimes act the same way? Why do we often tolerate frogs in our own lives? Why do we often let frogs stay until tomorrow when we could remove them today? Stephen, what are you talking about? I'm talking about sin. Compare sin with Pharaoh's frogs: Pharaoh could have removed those frogs at any time but because of pride & stubbornness, he let them linger another night. What a mistake, but we are guilty of the same sort of error when we fall into sin and allow it to remain in our lives when we know we should remove it now! Would any of you, had you been Pharaoh, waited until tomorrow to have the frogs removed from the land? Physically, we'd get those frogs out ASAP, but what about spiritual frogs? Do we allow sin the time & place to hop around in our lives when we could remove it now?

2. Resisting God is futile; His will ultimately will be accomplished.
This is true regardless of whether we work for or against Him. Thus, we may as well work with God and not vainly fight against Him! Pharaoh suffered so much needlessly (and he brought a terrible burden upon his people; cf. Exo. 10:7). Besides the example of Pharaoh, we could consider Jonah's foolish attempt to flee from God. In the New Testament we might note Gamaliel's good advice (which wasn't followed!) in Acts 5:34ff. When we let a particular sin have free course in our lives, we are resisting God, whether we realize it or not. For instance, if you struggle with the sin of covetousness, work to remove it; don't fight God and try to convince yourself that your sin is OK.

3. Don't procrastinate on the things that are really important.
How can one determine if something is important or not? Ask yourself this question: 100 years from now will it even matter if I got this task completed? If the answer is yes, then the task is important. If the answer is no, then it really isn't that important. We need to clearly understand the difference between physically important things and spiritually important things. Years ago I knew a young couple who bought a house. There was lots to be done before moving in and they worked hard on many projects. However, they would never skip assemblies of the church to get more done on the house. They correctly understood that no matter what they did to their house, it wasn't going to matter one bit 100 years in the future--they'd be dead! The only thing that would matter then is if they lived faithfully to God or not! James 4:13-17 has some thought-provoking words of wisdom regarding doing the good that you can today. Our lives are like a vapor and sometimes tomorrow doesn't come for every individual.

Friends, when we say things like: "Tomorrow I'll change", "Tomorrow, I'll come back to the Lord", "Tomorrow, I'll be baptized"--what we're really saying is: "Lord, I'll take one more night with the frogs!" Don't be a stubborn fool, don't resist God's will, & don't procrastinate doing that which is right!

This day is another day that God has given us. Today is a gift--don't waste God's gifts! If we can help you get right with the Lord, please contact us.