The possibility is in your eyes!
Picture this:
The Israelites are camped out at the shore of the Red Sea. They’ve just escaped a life of bondage and they are still very unsure of what the future holds. All they know is that the Lord has heard their cries, and has come to their rescue.
There is an excitement that they feel, and a confidence that with a powerful God as they’ve just witnessed put Pharaoh in his place, they will be just fine.
Until…
Pharaoh and a massive army come over the hill and are charging full force toward them with merciless rage and pure hatred in their eyes.
And in this moment, Isaiah 52:12 was being proven even before it was written:
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight
For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
In other words, don’t be anxious, be at peace, because God always has a plan, even when we can’t see it and it feels like a whole army of trouble and pain is upon us.
As we look at the passage in Exodus 14, we see that all of this was a part of God’s plan for 2 reasons.
-He wanted glory over Pharaoh
And
-He wanted the Egyptians to know that He is the Lord.
I encourage you to take a minute and read Exodus chapter 14. There is so much in this that speaks to our current situation as followers of Jesus.
In verse 14, Moses tells the Israelites: “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
And then as Pharaoh and his army are getting closer and closer, God tells Moses to part the Red Sea. At this point, noted in verse 19, we see that the angel of the Lord moved from being in front of them and leading them to behind them, placing himself in between all of Israel and Pharaoh, and after he moves, the Pillar of cloud and fire moved behind them as well.
It is in these moments before the miracle takes place and when we are feeling as if we will be destroyed before the miracle comes, that God moves everything else around in order to keep us safe. But we must remember verse 14, The Lord will fight for us, and we have only to be silent. We must keep our hearts from doubting and from whining at God for the situation. We have to become a people who trust so deeply that we are able to see what the Israelites saw coming toward them and yet embrace the perfect love of our King and cast off fear.
The greatest pains that we walk through in life are the very opportunities for God's glory and for the testing of our hearts. Our prayers must change from:
God, where are You?
And
Why will you not deliver us?
To
You are our deliverer we trust in you and we will follow you alone.
The process of that change takes time and our surrender to situations that will allow that to be formed within us.
We cannot deny the reality that Pharaoh was used by God. His heart was hardened by God, in order to bring about something greater in the Israelites,
-a greater trust
-a greater vision of who God is
-a greater understanding of the God they serve and His might and power to save them
The adventure and the testimonies and the miraculous stories that the Israelites were able to pass down through their generations would not exist if they refused to follow God’s path for their lives.
And the same is for us, friends. It is ours to decide whether or not He will be the Lord of our lives.
-He sees the big picture and the whole picture
-We see in part.
-He is always trustworthy
-We tend to be fearful and lacking trust.
Therefore…. We must surrender ourselves to His leading if we are going to conquer the mountains that are before us.
We must take our eyes off of Pharaoh
And
Lock them onto the ONE who is ABLE and WILLING to save!
I am about to release a book called ‘Before the Clock Ticks’. It is a book focused on our connection to God. It uses the story of an ordinary man’s journey to relay the critical importance of our time here on earth. What happens before the clock ticks and after it stops is invaluable to our perspective of what lies in between. News of the release of this book will be through our newsletter and social media. Be sure to share this with friends and family that you think might be interested. You can sign up to receive Blog posts in your email at any time here on the website at the bottom of any page.