Then Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea, and all that night the
LORD drove the sea back with a strong
east wind and turned it into dry land.
The waters were divided, and the
Israelites went through the sea on dryground, with a wall of water on their
right and on their left.
Exodus 14:21-22 NIV
God’s specialty! Providing a way out when there seems to be no way!
Grace for the hour!
All night long, the Israelites could hear the wind of God blowing across
the Red Sea. Perhaps they were thinking, “We will have to decide about how to
cross the sea only if the wind does not first blow us away.” They certainly
could not have expected God to deliver them from the armies of Pharaoh by
simply walking them across the sea. But He did!
God specializes in unique delivery systems; the Israelites across the
Red Sea, Jonah to Nineveh, Elijah ran faster than a chariot to Jezreel, Stephen
from the stones to the throne room of heaven…
But, too often we think of those Biblical events and refuse to believe
that God continues to do the same today. We like to read about the Red Sea
crossing, the whale spewing Jonah onto dry ground, and Elijah beating Ahab to
Jezreel by running right past his chariot. Secretly, we may wish that God would perform some such
miracle in our own lives.
Psalm 50:15 tells us to “Call upon Me (God-mine) in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall
glorify Me.” When we face a giant, we should not be afraid to ask God to provide
deliverance.
However, we are not so quick to ask God to deliver us, like Stephen,
from the stones to the throne room. We forget, or choose to ignore, the miracle
delivery system God uses to escort us from this world to the next. We want to
live—normal desire. We like to focus on the works of our Heavenly Father that
give us our desired outcome—health
vs. illness, financial freedom vs. debt, friends vs. enemies… When we get our way, we praise God for the
miracle, and we should.
Could it be, however, that the
greatest miracle (after salvation) is the one that transports a child of God
from this world into the presence of our Heavenly Father? Luke 16:22 tells us
that “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to
Abraham’s side…”—escorted by angels from this world to the next.
God never changes! What He does for others, He will do for you. You are
not the only one that God cannot or will not help. Don’t forget that those
wonderful stories of deliverance we read about in God’s Word were all necessary
because of some type of trauma, disaster or struggle which preceded the
miracle.
God’s transportation system may not deliver us to our expected
destination. We may want to stay when He tells us it is time to go. But do not
fear, His way is best and His way is good. He gives us grace for the struggle
and grace for our journey. And when he calls us to our final destination, the
Child of God can look forward to being escorted into the presence of our holy
Heavenly Father.
Grace for the hour, and the best transportation system ever created! To
be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. (II Corinthians 5:8)
©Joyce
Powell
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