03/12/2022
We pray for deliverance, God speaks to us, and then right in the middle of His plan we begin to doubt Him. Does this sound familiar? Haven’t each of us looked at the way the Lord was working on our behalf and thought “This is impossible, it will not work, I am doomed!”, and cried out to Him in our moment of doubt and disbelief? We all want to be strong in faith like Moses, but too often we are just simple Israelites… fearing, and looking for someone to blame for our hardship, or what we perceive to be impending doom, even if it means that we must blame the Moses in our life, or God Himself. So what are the limits of our faith? How long can we sustain our belief before we begin to quake, and look for a scapegoat?
“When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?”
Exodus 14:10-11 ESV
We look at our dreams, our wants, and our prayers through earthly eyes. We ask God for something in our quiet place, and as we do so, we already have in our minds the imagined way we want him to provide it; we have worked out a solution according to natural laws as we perceive them to be, or how the circumstances we find ourselves in can be manipulated to provide the answer we desire. Oh, occasionally we find that we can’t see a way at all, so we pray for a “miracle”, but even then we have a preconceived notions of what is possible… even for a “miracle.” We place boundaries around God and want to judge His ability based on what we think is possible, or impossible. This is exactly what the Israelites were doing as they stood facing the Red Sea with the Egyptian army closing in on them. There was no natural way, in their minds, that God could rescue them; so doubt and fear washed over them, and they turned to blame Moses and God for their demise.
“Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.””
Exodus 14:12 ESV
We imagine Heaven, we imagine the throne of God, and we imagine what God Himself must be like, yet we are so limited in our thoughts. Our imaginations fall unimaginably short of His, and so it is when God moves in our lives, or to answer our prayers… we can only fathom in our shallow, and limited way, how He will work all these things together for our good.
“But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.””
Luke 18:27 ESV
We might be waiting on God to save us from something harmful today, or to provide for us in a mighty way. We might even be fearing for our very lives, or the lives of loved ones. If we are in such a place let’s ask ourselves what the condition of our faith is. Are we firm like Moses who talks constantly with God, or are we weak like the Israelites who only seem to reach out to Him in desperation? Is our trust in Him strong enough to stand firm on the shores of whatever sea we are facing, or do we look back, quivering in fear, only to become a frozen pillar of salt like Lot’s wife, who by her doubt, and disobedience, was tempted to look back on the destruction of Sodom.
“And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:17, 26 ESV
So, can we see God working the impossible in our lives and hold fast to what He is doing? Can our faith transcend the bounds of our humanity, complete with all the imagined limitations we find there? Will our trust in the Lord our God, and Jesus Christ raise us up in righteousness, and give us new eyes, and a new way of seeing what is possible in God?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the height, width, and depth of who you are, and the unimaginable brightness of your glory that we find in every answered prayer, and in every merciful provision we receive from you. Help us Father to see each and every prayer we lift unto you in the name of Jesus to be more than possible, but certain. Let none of our desires, our dreams, and our prayers be outside your will, nor of our own selfishness. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God in whom there are no limitations, and in whose imagination there is no bound. Praised be your name for every rescue, escape, provision, and healing you grant us. Merciful are you who gives us the eyes to see what we once thought impossible because of our own limitations. Your grace abounds Lord, and though we often don’t understand your ways and thoughts, help us to know, trust, and obey you like Jesus that our lives be made full in you. Wash us in the blood of Jesus and forgive us of our sins. Resurrect us as you resurrected your Son Jesus Christ, and find us worthy of eternal life in your presence. In this way, let our faith and righteousness bring you glory forevermore, for now my eye sees you.
“Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.””
Job 42:1-6 ESV
Rich Forbes