[[-SOAP HUB]] | [[-Exodus Overview]] | [[Exodus 15]] ## Title: Necessary Unnecessary Hardships ## Scripture: (Exodus 15:26) He said, “If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.” (NET) ## Observation: When I was a teenager, I played basketball for the junior high team. As a team, we were good and won many of our games. However, the coach noticed our free throw percentage was not good. Then, one day we lost a game that could have been won if we had made all our free throws. At the next practice, the coach would not let anyone go home until we had each made 100 free throws. Some might have considered it an unnecessary punishment for our loss, and it was. Making those free throws would not take back the loss and only seemed to make us all frustrated. However, the coach knew something we did not. The only way to get better at free throws is to practice them with good form. Therefore, what seemed unnecessary was more necessary than we realized. Afterward, the coach told us to keep practicing our free throws. If we were careful to keep it up, we would not have to add them to our practices anymore. This is what God is saying in today’s passage. If the nation of Israel is careful to do what God says, they will not have to experience the hardships that are not necessary. But, if they refuse to listen, they will experience how unnecessary hardships become a necessary part of their sanctification. How many times could we look at experiences in our lives and honestly say this was what happened to us? We experience hardships that would have been unnecessary if we had only paid attention to God’s Word. ## Application: Are you currently experiencing hardships that have become necessary due to bad decisions? What if you reframed them as learning experiences? ## Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for always guiding us along the way.