When Everything Is Different

He spread out a cloud as a covering,

    and a fire to give light at night.

They asked, and he brought them quail;

    he fed them well with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock, and water gushed out;

    it flowed like a river in the desert.

~ Psalm 105:39-41

 

I’ve been quiet for a while. I’ll explain why in the days to come. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few thoughts.

There are times in life when a battle is prolonged and the outcome seems uncertain. Add to that reality the times when the battle did not go in your favor and you have a recipe for another battle: the one against fear. And you find yourself negotiating with God as if He needs to be convinced to help. That’s about where I’ve been the last few months–deep in negotiations that don’t need to happen, instead of simply requesting.

Weeping because my fear has been bigger than my faith.

And then I noticed something. I noticed that everything is different.

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years when they were delivered. That’s a long time to build up habits. They had been taught to do another’s bidding for generation upon generation. No one waited on them. I bet a few imagined what it would be like to have someone wait on them, but fewer would have been able to allow another to wait on them. Habits. They were trained from birth to be slaves.

That’s when God rescues them with wonders and miracles, and he takes them out into the wilderness. And then here’s the part that always gets me–He doesn’t demand that they become His slaves, but He waits on them. He provides shade and warmth, food and drink. They react from habits of fear and slavery, but He waits on them. Suddenly, everything is different.

Maybe you’ve been praying about something for a long time and haven’t had an answer. Maybe it’s been years. Maybe it’s been decades. Maybe God promised something to you 25 years ago and you’ve messed up a time or two trying to bring it to pass. But then, suddenly, everything is different. The fear-battle is still there, but everything is different. You’re in the midst of wondering if God is really going to answer this time, but still you know, everything is different.

We don’t have to fight that fear-battle before we come to the Lord. We can come to Him and ask Him to fight the battle with us. Chances are, He’ll fight the battle for us.

So if you’re in that hour, day, year where things seem so dark and uncertain, where the past tries to tell you that everything is going to be the same as it ever was, there comes a point where everything–everything is different. Don’t give up.

Here’s a video that illustrates this further.

“…they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:4

God bless you!