When human evil goes unchecked, bad things happen, and bad people can sometimes

turn into monsters. The author of Exodus is showing us that Pharaoh was responsible
for the evil in his heart, and at a clear point in the story (after plague 5), he
crossed a point of no return. At this point, God re-purposes this “vessel” (as Paul
puts it in Romans 9) for his own good purposes. The point of the story is not to
tell us that God engineers evil, rather, it is a cautionary warning to you, the
reader, saying, “Don’t be like Pharaoh!” Strange things happen in the human heart
and mind when we let the evil urges of our broken nature go unchecked. God will
always graciously offer us chances to turn back (would you have given Pharaoh so
many chances?!), but sometimes a person can cement themselves in a destructive path
and reach a point of no return. God can and sometimes will allow our evil to
destroy us. BUT, the good news is, if that last sentence kind of freaks you out,
you’re not Pharaoh! The fact that you’re asking the sobering question, means that
your heart is soft, and wants to do the right thing. As we progress through the
rest of the biblical narrative, you’ll see this theme of the hard vs. soft heart
develop more. For now, let’s ponder the mysterious justice and mercy of God, who
wants to save us from ourselves. Saying yes to God can be hard. It can mean giving
up a lot of things, and turning away from things that we view as key to our
happiness but there's a joy greater than anything that we could ever experience on
hand if we do. If we've declared our availability to God but then in reality don't
feel like we can go down the path opening up before us, it might be because we've
still got a way to go after we say, "Yes, Lord, use me". This isn't about saying no
to God but saying no to everything else that stops you saying yes to him. It's
impossible to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way and devote the
necessary time and attention to each one. Making yourself available to God is
inevitably going to mean making at least one sacrifice, even if it's just your
time. If you want God to use you, you need to ask yourself: "Have I made space in
my life for God?". Identify which activities are continuously getting in the way of
enabling you to devote yourself to pursuing his will and reduce the amount of time
you spend doing them or eliminate them completely. Sometimes when we express our
availability to God we can already have in mind something that we want to do which
will have the added benefit of serving God. Praying that you become president
because you really want to become president with the caveat of doing God's will
isn't the same as declaring honest and unconditional availability. Being genuinely
available means accepting challenges even if they're not quite what you had in mind
or something that you don't feel prepared for. Ephesians 2:10 says: "For we are
God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do." Moreover, it doesn't have to be elaborate, just talk to God
and tell him that you're willing to do his work. Once you made yourself available,
communicating with God throughout to make sure you're on the right track is key,
and it will give you the encouragement to help you as you do as he instructs.
Lastly, it's all well and good vocalising that you want to do what ever God's
calling you to do but do you really mean it? If you can't bear saying no, cutting
out distractions and going to God for guidance, then you're not really available.
God knows what in your heart so when you say yes, you need to mean it.