Following God — Finding a Dead End (2)

Scripture Reading: Exodus 14:13, 14

Key Verse: “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13b).

Meditation: Some of us grew up with the belief that if we are really good Christians only good things will happen to us. When we find ourselves facing serious problems we are tempted to wonder whether we had somehow missed God’s guidance, or put ourselves outside God’s will.

Moses had not made a mistake in discerning God’s guidance, yet he finds himself hemmed in with no safe place to turn. God’s second word, stand firm, seems humanly more demanding than the first instruction not to fear. God wants us to “stay put” in a crisis situation and avoid the natural impulse to run. We must wait until our human spirit becomes quiet before God. Crisis time is not the time to make decisions about our future. We must stand long enough to gain God’s perspective of our situation and make allowance for His interventions, which usually come before our “eleventh hour.”

Martin Luther stood condemned by the Emperor before the Diet for declaring that we are saved by faith in Christ alone. Although he was declared a heretic, he responded, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God; here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.”        

Thought for the Day: The most significant thing in life is not the number or nature of the crises we face, but whether we remain standing firmly on God’s Word to the end.