Mount Sinai

The Israelites were a great nation who had started out as a single family travelling to find food during the famine. They grew in numbers and became powerful until the King of Egypt felt threatened by them and made them into slaves where they worked for many many years under the brutal watch of the Kings slave drivers. But God had not forgotten them and He rose up Moses as a leader who led them out of Egypt in a great display of God's mighty power and they began the journey to the land which God had promised to them long ago. They journeyed for a while through the wilderness and desert and came to Mount Sinai, a significant mountain for the Israelites. Here God told them to stop, to rest and set up camp and to stay there for a while... and they did. They needed it. But eventually God says this to them. " You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It's time to break camp and move on." (Deuteronomy 1:6)

Mount Sinai in the wilderness through which the Israelites travelled.

When I read this, I see not only the journey of the mighty Israelite nation but also a reflection of what God does in our lives. We are on a journey and sometimes its through places that are barren and wild and harsh... times of grief or loneliness and struggle, and God allows us to stop at a place. to rest awhile. And at the time, its what we need and while we are there we can reflect and think on how we got there, but this Mount Sinai was never supposed to be like this forever and eventually God will say, You have been here long enough, its time to move on... And when we know this, the resting place becomes a burden, a set back until we break camp and move on. The wilderness beyond the mountain is a scary, uncertain place... but when its time to break camp, its a lot better than staying. When that time comes, the mountain has nothing left for you.
For me, this is sort of what this looked like.
For a long time I have been scared that people dont love me as much as I love them, because I have been given the ability to love deeply and when I dont feel that same love back, I feel scared and put up walls to protect myself.... But until recently, I didnt understand this about myself, I just wondered why I cared so much about if people loved me and why I would be so affected when they didnt. God brought me to a place in this journey where I was able to stop and begin to understand this and think about it. I thought a lot and wrote a lot about fears and insecurity and loving people without needing them... I began to see how I am able to love people completely and deeply without needing that returned because God always loves me more than I can comprehend and this is where I get my joy. I realised more about how it must break Gods' heart when He loves me so completely and I barely acknowledge Him sometimes. This was a good time. I needed it. It was my Mount Sinai for a while. But it began to be a burden when God told me "You have been at this mountain long enough, its time to break camp and move on." I needed to move past understanding myself and into loving people better because of it, into loving God better because of it. When I began to use this fear as an excuse of why I put up walls around myself, it was no longer a resting place, but something that was stopping me from living fully.
So I broke camp and moved on.

My question for you is what is your Mount Sinai? Has the time come to break camp?

May we be like the Israelites... "Just as the Lord commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and travelled through the great and terrifying wilderness." (Deuteronomy 1:19)