Guest speaker Yan Hadley took as his theme ‘Living Between A Rock And A Hard Place’, reminding us that God is very often found at wits’ end corner! Prov 24:16 reminds us that the wicked fall when calamity strikes, but the righteous will rise again. Fiery ordeals are part of everyone’s experiences, but deliverance comes from the Lord.
Exodus 14 narrates a difficult time for the Israelites, with the Egyptians in pursuit of them and the Red Sea looming in front. Yet in this chapter, we see 5 principles to help us in difficult times:
1) Don’t panic and don’t be afraid. ‘Fear not’ is the most repeated phrase in the Bible. Fear can easily obscure faith, but we are commanded (not advised) not to fear.
2) Stand still. There is deliverance when we stop trying to fix things ourselves. Our mind can be very busy coming up with all kinds of solutins to our problems, but we must stand still and enter God’s rest. Then we can find rest for our souls.
3) We need to believe there is purpose in every problem. God knows the end from the beginning. He sees and knows and can act. Our hope and our answers are found in God. There is a process of preparation in every problem.
4) We must feed on God’s promises, not on the junk food of our perceptions. The Lord said He would fight for them – they needed to praise God anyway. As Rend Collective sing, ‘Hallelujah anyway’!
5) They needed to move forward in faith. They had to walk through the parted Red Sea. They had to forget what was behind and move forward in faith. So must we.