Sunday, December 19, 2010

He Will Carry You...

I thank the Lord for deciding to grant me another year of life upon this earth. Another year to serve, learn, grow and love. At the same time another year full of hard times, trials, doubts, fears and uncertainties. Yet as life goes on I know my Master in a more intimate way. I feel much more connected to His heart, I value more and more what is important to Him and less what is important to me. I don't know what your life is like but we all go through times when life seems dark, when it seems that there is no way out. You feel trapped, scared and helpless. I want to show you a promise from God in the book of Deuteronomy 1:29-31.



Let's go back a little. Israel escapes from Egypt, they are on their way out but their is just one thing. They are backed up against the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, their is no way out. Put yourself in their place, what would you do? Freak out, run around, maybe try to swim and make it to the other side or just surrender? Just at the right moment God parts the sea in two and gives you a way out. Wow! How many times have we heard this story and never really realized how heightened the emotions must have been that day. After this God led them through the wilderness, gave them the law in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. The people entered into a special covenant relationship with God and received a new way of life. They went from being slaves to being the sons of the King of the universe. They were even promised to receive a special new land which flowed with milk and honey. After God came to meet Moses on Mt. Sinai, Israel headed out to take over the new promised land. To make the story short, they disobeyed and the penalty was death to all but two men. They would had to wander in the desert for 40 years until every last one of them died! We come to the point where they are all gone and a new generation rises up and is ready to enter the promised land. After they had crossed the Jordan and defeated two kings Moses decided to give the law again in a sermon type of way. That's the book of Deuteronomy the constitution of Israel as a nation. Israel had seen God carry them through the wilderness with many miracles and wonders.



The verses I want to focus on are 29-31. God is calling His people to do a hard task, take out the nations before them. Some are giants, most are bigger than them and all in all it's a scary situation for them. What does God say? He tells them, " Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place." I cried as I read this passage yesterday, God carries us as a father carries his son. Do you realize how much God loves you? You might be going through some really hard times with the economy, with your family, who knows. But I want to let you know, if you have given your life to the Lord Jesus, if you have repented from your sins and truly believed in Him, God carries you as a father carries his son. What's your Red Sea, what impossible situation are you facing? Know that God is right there, He might not speak to you in an audible voice, He might not even let you feel His presence but know that He's there and after all is done you will be able to say, "The Lord carried me through it all just as a father carries his son."



Why does God do this? I think for a couple reasons. First, so that we know Him in a more intimate way (by the way what are we without a living relationship with Him). Second, to make us depend on Him and not on ourselves. Last and most important, to grow our faith. When the moment comes that God asks us to do something difficult we will need to have a deeper faith to be able to trust Him. And when we've went through the storm with Him we will know that He is faithful and that we can trust Him with our lives. I challenge you to fully give yourself over to Him and trust Him. You will then discover that God truly loves and cares about you especially when you are going though life's impossible moments.

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