Resting in God’s Power

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

What do you do when the odds are stacked against you? Imagine you were in the Israelites’ position when they first got out of Egypt: the red sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s valiant army with horses and chariots behind them. They obviously couldn’t face off against a whole army without any weapons to defend themselves, neither could they swim all the way across the sea. They were probably already tired from all the walking they had been doing, so what could they do?

Just like anybody else would do instinctively in such a situation, they panicked, as described in Exodus 14:10-12. They badgered Moses for a solution and started murmuring against him saying,

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

But God’s response to the Israelites through Moses was one they didn’t expect.

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then He parted the red sea and the Israelites walked through on dry land. When Pharaoh’s army tried to follow behind them, He closed the sea and it drowned them all!

To the best of my knowledge, none of us are going through what the Israelites went through, but there are definitely times in our lives when we feel that the odds are stacked against us, times when we aren’t sure if we’ll make it out of the tunnel alive. When times like that come (and trust me, they will come), we need to be still and trust God, trust His plans for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says,

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Let go, and let God. Peace and love of Christ be with you all!