GOING BACKWARDS TO GO FORWARD!

In studying in Exodus 14 (1-4)3 this morning, here is what I read: Then the Lord said to Moses. Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp....They are to encamp by the sea..Pharoah will think, "The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert" And I will harden Pharoah's heart and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharoah and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." So the Israelites did this.

If I would have been Moses the last thing I would ever have wanted to hear or expected to hear from God was "turn around and go back and face Pharoah again", and it would have been the last thing on earth I ever wanted to do. I bet he sure hated to tell that one to the Israelite people.

I believe Moses and everybody else wanted to get as far away from Egypt and Pharoah and his armies as soon as they possibly could.

Don't you think Pharoah had to be the last person on earth that Moses wanted to face again but scripture says "So the Israelites did this" no matter how illogical, unconventional or unpopular the idea was.

But God was not being unkind. No, it was for their good and His glory that He commanded them to do this. It was so they could truly put the past in the past once and for all and move on. It was so that they could be free to live the rest of their lives without fear that Pharoah was going to show up and enslave them all over again.

Sometimes in order to set us free from our past it is necessary for God to turn us around, send us back and face some people we'd rather never see again. What we may see as a step backwards in the wrong direction is actually a step forward to free us so that we may truly live life as God intends for us to live.

Joseph had to face his painful past when his brothers arrived in Egypt.
Moses had to face his painful past when God at the burning bush told him to go back to Egypt.
Elijah had to face his painful past when God told him to turn around and go back where he had come from and reengage in the battle going on.

But the wonderful thing about God sending us back is that He never sends us back without Him. Wherever He commands us to go, He is there, with us all the time all the way.

I have personally experienced this in my life. A family member had sexually abused me and so I kept my distance from him until I was 37 years old, having become a Christian at the age of 30. One day God began telling me I needed to ask the man's forgiveness for not being the Christian sister I should have been which is certainly nothing I ever wanted or intended to do. But I knew God was right. I had not been the Christian sister I should have been. So God sends him to my door and I ask him in and tell him how sorry I am for not being the Christian sister I should have been to him and I tell him I forgive him. He walks out of my house without saying a word. Three days later I am sitting in church at Christmas time, listening to Christmas music being played and God says "Go lead him to Christ". So in obedience, I went back to him after being pretty rejected a few days earlier and I shared Christ with him. The result: He asked Jesus Christ into his life and said "Terry, I knew if you could forgive me, God could." And never ever again was the path a problem between us. I truly did love him and he loved me with the love that only Jesus Christ can bring.

So by going back and dealing with my past, I truly was set free and so was my relative. God is so good! I am so glad this part of my past no longer brings me any pain whatsoever.

JESUS' WAY OR WRONG WAY!

Exodus 13:17 and 18 When Pharoah let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.

God doesn't always lead us the way we think we should be going but His way is always the best way. Any other way is always the wrong way!

The shortest and easiest way is not always the best way for us; the route that others may take is not always the route we should take too!

God knows us far better than we know ourselves; He knows how we will handle adversity, crises and conflict. He always knows what we are ready to handle and what we are not!

Outwardly we may look and act like we are far more ready for battle than we really are. We may even believe ourselves that we are ready to take on anyone and anything. But God alone knows just how ready we really are.

The safest place we can be is always in the center of God's will no matter where He is leading us, what others think about us, no matter how wrong, illogical, unexpected or unconventional it seems. NOTE: God will never lead us contrary to His Word!

We are far better off with God in the desert than ANYWHERE ELSE WITHOUT HIM!

As I remember someone saying the Will of God will never lead you where the grace of God can't keep you.

How much do I really want to be like Jesus

My thoughts regarding Matthew 14 and water -walking

Peter wanted to be where Jesus was and do what he was doing. This meant that Peter had to be willing to get out of the boat and go where he had never gone and do what he had never before done and to trust Jesus more than he ever before had.

Peter knew that unless Jesus commanded him to do it he would sink like a rock. God's commandments are God's enablements. Otherwise to attempt such a task would be absolutely crazy.

Peter wanted to water-walk more than he wanted to be SAFE! He wanted to actually experience the power of Jesus holding him up and seeing him through whatever it was Jesus wanted him doing.

Peter wanted to experience the reality of what Jesus had been teaching and promising.

Peter wanted to become more like Jesus!

Peter wanted to do what in the past would have been totally impossible for him to be doing. He wanted to be an overcome, not always overcome by his circumstances.

He wanted to follow Jesus' example so he could be an example!

Most people would never have tried on the best of days, but Peter was willing to try when all odds were against him - high and rough seas, strong winds, and darkness everywhere he looked.

Yes, when Jesus showed up, Peter was ready to join Jesus in whatever he was doing. Everything else just took a back seat.

This scripture really challenges me - do I (again) want to go where I have never gone, do what I have never done (and what I can't possibly do without Jesus) and trust and experience the power of Jesus as I never before have? Some days I am ready and some days I don't even want to be out in a boat; I just want to be home!

We are either moving forward in faith or backward in unbelief.

A divine opportunity

2 Kings 4:1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha. your serant my husband is dead and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.

What I note here in humor is that the creditor is her dead husband's but that the two boys are hers. Doesn't that sound just like a woman?

In any event it is obvious the widow did not know God but that she did know Elisha and knew that he did know God. I wonder if people turn to us in desperation because they don't know God but because of how we live, they know we do. Do we see them as a person in pain or as a problem we don't want to deal with.

This woman was desperate, destitute and absolutely determined to save her two sons. She had no where else to turn, no plan B. God was her only hope. It wasn't the time to do a financial assessment with her or determine how much sin she had in her life. No, it was a divine opportunity to show her that Elisha was not her answer, but God was. And he still is.

It was also an opportunity to move her from religion to the reality of God - to actually experience the power of God for herself.

I am so glad that our darkest moments are God's greatest opportunities to show Himself strong, faithful, sufficient, able and always enough!

Learning God's faithfulness

After having come through another very hard year, I can honestly say I have found God absolutely faithful, loving and merciful. I am so thankful that He always accepts me as I am and not as He wants me to be or expects me to be. I am so glad that He is always a safe person, never condescending or condemning. I am so thankful that He always knows exactly what to say to me, when to say it and how to say it. I am so glad that he feels my pain and sees my tears and greets me with open arms.

It seems the older I become the more I desperately need Jesus. It isn't quite the spiritual giant concept that I had imagined. I am so glad Jesus never outgrows us or abandons us or stops loving us.

Finding myself in the Old Testament

As I was reading in Genesis 50 today which is where Joseph's dad has died and now his brothers are afraid that Joseph is going to really give them what they deserve, I experienced God speaking to me and saying Terry - like these brothers you don't trust me after all I have done for you and all that I have healed you from. If you read the scripture when Joseph's brothers mistrusted him after all he had done, it says Joseph wept. I wonder if I make God weep when I refuse to trust him no matter how many times he shows Himself to be absolutely faithful and trustworthy. What is it in me that refuses to trust? Does the past still somewhat control my future because I find it extremely difficult to trust God in some areas of my life?

I admitted my mistrust to God and asked Him to make the change in me because I know I cannot. And I know that He will because He has enabled me in the past to finally believe he loved me after 9 l/2 years as a Christian and still believing that I was unlovable. These walls we put up are sure hard to tear down and in my life I have found usually God is the only one who can.