“But Moses said to the people, ‘Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the LORD’s salvation that He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The LORD Himself will fight for you; you need only to be still.’
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to MOVE FORWARD (toward the sea). As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.”
~Exodus 14:13-16
As you can see in my last post, I've allowed my fear of all the unknowns surrounding the adoption process to cloud my faith... to make me doubt where I already believed God was leading me. The very last thing I want to do is push forward in my own strength with something that God is not in or that He is not blessing, so I've prayed about this decision a lot over the past decade...
As an introvert whose innate tendency is to wait and pray and be still, I have always loved the verse where Moses tells the people, "The Lord will fight for you - you need only to be still." And apparently, I've missed God's very immediate response to that statement, which contradicts the idea that He's supposed to just do it all for us, and instead tells Moses and the Israelites to break camp and get moving - to raise his staff and take action and go forward right into something that really scared them. Yes, God's power and glory are on full display, and He does fight for them and take care of the miraculous parting of the waters... but they have to deliberately step into that sea and trust Him all the way through it, knowing they can never go back when the waters close behind them on the other side. And in verse 20, God's angel and the cloud of His presence both move behind them and stand as a dividing wall between them and their enemies, protecting them and lighting their way as they move forward, through the deep waters. (If that entire event and the metaphorical lessons there don't preach, I don't know what will!!)
So yeah, God spoke to me yesterday through a sermon podcast titled "Green Light at the Red Sea." Much like myself, Steven Furtick is a fan of alliteration, and he used an acronym for GREEN, saying that God will give us the Grace, Resources, Energy, and Evidence that we need to Navigate the road ahead. Yes, please!!
Grace ~ grace for your greatest embarrassments, failures, and mistakes
Resources ~ resources for your deepest need
Energy ~ energy for your most draining relationships
Evidence ~ evidence of God's faithfulness so that future generations will know the Lord
A few other quotes that stood out to me:
"You've got a green light at the Red Sea, and you've got to GO! God is going to get His glory as you go through."
"So what do the Egyptians represent? It represents their past, and really, it represents their way of life - all that they've known. It also represents the provision that they've grown accustomed to receiving. We've always heard the Red Sea as a story of great faith, but before they had great faith, watch their fear - watch them put their faith in Reverse. Their testimony had a stage of terror!"
"The Bible uses history to teach theology, so it uses the example of a body of water to get me to look at things in my life where I'm going, I don't see how. I really don't see how... I thought I was ready for the Promised Land, but I was not ready for this Red Sea, for this barrier, for this test... It's been making you want to turn around and go home... but it doesn't work in Reverse. You can't go back there."
"If you stand still, you die inside, so that's why God is going to help you navigate. If you stand there and stay in your feelings... the miracle is not in your feelings; it's in your feet. You've got to move; it's green. You've got the go-ahead from God, even though you've never figured this out before. So God will give you the green light, but He's not going to drive the car."
"God is giving you divine power to demolish strongholds and a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit... And you're going to have for the rest of your life, when you pass through this season, the evidence of His faithfulness."
All that to say, I feel like God is giving me a green light, and I am stepping forward. God has already given me some much-needed clarity and peace about how to handle the financial part of it... but I know there will be new hurdles along the way, and I obviously don’t have a full map or any guarantee about how this will all work out - I just know that right now, I’m supposed to take this step. I can tell that this entire process is going to stretch my faith and cause me to stay close to God and keep pushing myself and growing with Him... and that's a little scary, and also really exciting and hopeful!! Prayers appreciated. ❤
No comments:
Post a Comment