“It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26).

Jesus told us in the gospel of John that we’re in this world, but we’re not of this world. When you and I were born, we were born into this natural realm, but when we became born again in Christ, we were born into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a spiritual realm. We exist in the spiritual realm of God’s kingdom only through our faith in Christ; when we believe in Jesus, (receive Him into our hearts) then the Father will give the Holy Spirit to each of us. When anyone has repented and asked Jesus to be their Savior, they become new creatures in Christ.

The story of Moses is very intriguing. When Moses was a baby, the king of Egypt sought to destroy him. Moses’ mother, in an attempt to preserve his life, placed him in a basket. She took him to a river and there she said goodbye to her child. As the basket floated down the river, Moses’ sister walked along the bank of the river and watched over the child.  His sister kept quiet when she observed a servant of the King’s daughter take the baby to the Egyptian princess, and the princess received the child as her own.

When the King’s daughter took the child, she asked her maid-servant to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. It happened that Moses’ sister knew a woman who could nurse the baby for the princess (Moses’ own mother). As Moses’ mother provided for her own son in the house of Pharaoh, she taught Moses that he was a Hebrew and not a child of the Egyptians. As an Egyptian, Moses had the best that money could buy; he could enjoy the pleasures of this world without restraint. But as a Hebrew, he would be rejected and pursued once again.

Though he was born the son of a Hebrew woman, there came a time in his life that he had to choose which way he would go. As children of God, we have to make the same decision. Although we are born again, there will be those moments when the Devil will tempt us to become like those in the world, but we must choose to suffer as Moses did in Egypt. He chose the reproach of Christ as greater riches, because he knew that there would be a reward one day.

In those moments when Satan is tempting us, we must remember whose child we are and continue to esteem the reproach of Christ over the pleasures of sin. If we will, then there is laid up for us a reward in heaven. Jesus tells us in the gospels that if we leave family, houses, land, or possessions for His name sake, then we will receive them back one hundred-fold in this life and eternal life as well. He has loved us, but He wants to know if we will love Him more than this world’s riches.

—submitted by Asa Dockery, US