• Read Exodus 1:1-2:10

MORNING— Grace When the Page Turns

• Focal Passage: Exodus 1:8

“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

Genesis ends with blessing. Exodus begins with bondage.

Between those Genesis 50:26 and Exodus 1:1 lies a silent gap—decades, perhaps centuries—during which God’s people flourished. They lived securely in Goshen. They remembered Joseph. They trusted promises made long ago. Then, with the turning of a page, everything changed.

A new king arose… and he did not know Joseph.

What was once favor became fear. What was once hospitality became oppression. Hard labor replaced abundance. Bitter lives replaced settled ones.

Many of us know that kind of page turn. Life was good—then suddenly it wasn’t. A diagnosis. A betrayal. A lost job. A broken promise. Past blessings are no guarantee of security in the present. Borrowed faith will not sustain us forever.

Yet adversity does something important. NBA star Alonzo Mourning once said, “Adversity introduces a man to himself.” Pressure reveals whether our faith is real—or merely inherited.

God’s promises had not failed. They were simply being tested.

• Reflection:  Has life turned a page for you—forcing you to discover whether your faith is truly your own?

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EVENING— Courage that Acts Before Deliverance Arrives

• Focal Passage: Exodus 1:17

“But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them.”

Deliverance did not come quickly. In fact, there would be no exodus for eighty more years. Yet courage showed up long before freedom did.

Two midwives—Shiphrah and Puah—stood between Pharaoh’s decree and helpless newborns. They were not powerful women. Most scholars believe they were barren, holding one of the lowest roles in their society. Yet when commanded to destroy life, they refused. They feared God more than Pharaoh.

And God honored their courage. “He established households for them.”

Soon after, a mother named Jochebed acted in faith of her own. She placed her son in a basket—not surrendering him to death, but entrusting him to God’s unseen care. Hebrews tells us plainly:

“By faith Moses’ parents hid him…” (Hebrews 11:23)

Before Israel ever marched through the sea, faith was already at work in quiet places—delivery rooms, riverbanks, ordinary homes where obedience mattered more than outcomes.

Robert J. Morgan tells the true story of Reba Robinson, a mother who lay awake night after night, clutching an old T-shirt that still carried the scent of her son. Dillon was a U.S. Marine assigned to covert operations so secret that even his mother was not told where he was or what he was doing. She only knew this: when fear surged in her heart, her son was likely in danger.

So Reba prayed.

She prayed while Dillon swam miles from a submarine to a hostile shore. She prayed while he parachuted behind enemy lines. She prayed when a terrorist pulled the trigger of a gun aimed at her son’s face—only for the weapon to jam. She prayed through nights of uncertainty with no information and no assurances.

Eventually, Dillon made it home safely.

Reba never knew what she was praying for. She only knew that faithful praying  mattered every day. Courage did not remove the danger her son faced—but it sustained him and her through it.

Like the midwives. Like Jochebed. Courage is often acted out long before any outcome becomes visible. Yet God is at work—quietly, patiently—while we pray on.

• Reflection: Where might God be calling you to quiet faithfulness—trusting Him before any change is visible?
• Closing Prayer:  Faithful God, When Your work feels slow and Your purposes hidden, give us courage to remain faithful. Teach us to fear You more than circumstances, to obey even when the future is unclear, and to trust that You are at work in ways we cannot yet see. Strengthen us to walk by faith until Your deliverance is made known.
  Amen.