Prayer Can Part the Waters   

Last week my wife, my mother-in-law, and I went on a beach trip. It didn’t turn out as we had expected. We had to leave after only a couple of days due to my wife having a health crisis. She insisted on coming back to our local hospital, so we hurriedly made the drive, planning to go directly to the emergency room. The trip progressed rapidly until we were on the interstate approaching the Atlanta airport. There traffic came to a standstill. I heard on the radio that there was a wreck five miles ahead of us that had all the lanes closed. We were in the far-left lane with nowhere to go. We realized that we might be stuck there for hours.

 At that point I prayed. For some reason my mind went to the time when God parted the waters as the Israelites were escaping from slavery in Egypt. So I asked the Lord specifically to part the waters again, thinking about the removal of that wreck that might allow us to start moving again. However just a moment later, I noticed a gap in the lane next to me. And beyond it, I could see an even bigger space between vehicles in the subsequent lane. I took that as my cue and drove through two lanes of stopped traffic. I was then able to get in the next lane in which cars were moving because it led to an exit onto another expressway. I was able to follow it, passing the long line of cars that were still waiting for the road ahead to clear. We got on that other interstate and made it to the hospital in a very reasonable time.

 God answered my prayer, just not in the way I had anticipated. Instead of clearing the path five miles ahead of me, He created an opening right there where I was at, which led to a way out of our predicament. I am not sure, but sometimes it seems to me that creating such an unusual gap in the infamous Atlanta traffic at just the right moment and location may be about as big a miracle as parting the waters of the Red Sea. I could certainly see God’s hand at work.

What waters do you need parted today? God is still working and He still responds to the prayers of those who put their trust in Him. As in my case, He may not do exactly what you want or do it in the way you expect. He may do it in an even better way. However, we have to be looking and ready to respond when He does open the door. If I had not prayed that specific prayer and been looking for the answer in some form of a “parting of waters”, I probably would not have recognized the opportunity that was there nor have taken the initiative to take the risk. So let’s not pray for God to act but miss out on it due to our lack of vigilance or our timidity to follow His leading. I imagine that pathway through two walls of water was a rather intimidating sight for the Israelites. Nevertheless, they believed God and were willing to move forward, trusting that God would not allow the sea to come back together to swallow them up. Pray for God to part the waters in your situation, and then be ready to go.

At the time of this writing, my wife is still in ICU. Please keep her in your prayers. Prayer matters and is effective. As the Lord reaffirmed to me through this latest experience, when we pray He can still part the waters.

 

Draw Near to the Lord Who is with You  

Over the past month I have unexpectedly crossed paths with a couple of individuals I had not seen in many years. Both of them were moms whose children went to school with our kids. So during these brief encounters, we quickly caught up with the latest news on where our children are, what they are doing, and how many grandchildren we have. It was nice to reconnect with these people with whom we share a special bond. I suppose it goes back to all the significant moments we experienced together through school activities, sporting events, band concerts, and scout meetings. It was a combination of the amount of time we spent together in those days and the support we found in each other as we traversed through those busy, turbulent school years as parents.

 Shared experiences, especially if those events are significant or difficult, tend to create special connections with people. Hopefully, we within the church find such relationships with our fellow followers of Jesus. We should be there to encourage, support, and pray for one another as we go through all the learning experiences in the school of life. It is those who stand with us and by us at the times of greatest joy and the moments of deepest sorrow who tend to mean the most to us. A bond is formed that can stay with us forever.

However, the greatest connection we should experience is with the Lord Himself. He is always there with us, even when no one else can be. He can comfort us in ways no human being can. He is more faithful than even our best of friends. And He loves us and cares about us more than our dearest family member.

Nevertheless, this connection doesn’t just automatically happen simply because the Lord is present. We have to cultivate that closeness. It isn’t just about being together as we go through the ups and downs of life, but about talking to Him, leaning on Him, listening to His guidance, and watching how He works all things out for our good and to accomplish His purposes. It isn’t only that we share the same experience, but that we fellowship together as we do so. We need to read God’s Word, seek to understand His will, and hold onto His promises. We need to pray, sharing our concerns with the Lord, receiving His wisdom, and thanking Him for what He does.

Jesus compared His relationship with us to that of a shepherd with his sheep (John 10). When we look at what He says about it, as well as remember the familiar 23^rd Psalm, we see that it goes further than simply the shepherd being there. He has built a relationship with his sheep through leading them to good pastures, taking care of their needs, and protecting them from harm. He knows his sheep by name and they recognize the familiar voice of their shepherd. They have developed a special bond not only through their shared experiences but by how they interacted in those times.

  It is wonderful that the Lord promises to be with us, to never leave us nor forsake us. But let’s do more than sense His presence. Look to Him for the strength and comfort you need to endure those times. Draw close to Him and experience the fulfillment of His promise that He will draw close to you. Submit to the guidance of your Shepherd. Trust Him to take care of you. Be faithful to follow Him, even if you can’t see where He is leading. If you go through life together in such a relationship, it will be difficult for anything to come between you and your Lord or to diminish your devotion to Him.

 

We Have Hope in Times of Grief   

Recently we took a day trip to visit our son and his family who live about two and a half hours away from us. Because of the distance, we don’t get to see them as often as our other children and grandchildren who live closer. After having an enjoyable visit, we announced that we were going to have to leave. Our three-year-old grandson started to cry, expressing his sadness about our departure. We hated to see him cry, but at the same time it was heartwarming to know that he loved us and wanted us to stay. Finally, we were able to comfort him with the reminder that it would not be too long before he would be coming to our house to visit us. Getting him focused on looking ahead to our next reunion seemed to reduce his grief over the fact that we were leaving him at the moment.

I thought of that scene with our grandson as I prepared to attend a funeral a few days later. When a loved one leaves this life, it can be difficult. We don’t want that person to go. We grieve over the loss that we experience. It isn’t going to be the same without him or her. We have precious memories of our time together. In many cases, our time spent with that person spanned not just a few hours of a day trip but years, maybe even our whole lives. We don’t want it to end.

Such grief is understandable. It reveals and expresses our great love for that person. However, we shouldn’t get mired down in the natural sadness we can feel on those occasions. This is especially true when we have assurance that the person who left this life was putting his trust in Jesus as his Savior. Like in our grandson’s case, we can choose to focus less on our current loss and more on our future reunion with that person. Of course, this is assuming that we ourselves also are enjoying a right relationship with God through faith in Christ. If so, then we can look ahead to the time when we will be going to where he is one day. This isn’t the end. We will see our loved one again. He has left us, but we will be going to meet up with him at the better place where he now resides. We will have a wonderful reunion at our Lord’s house – our heavenly home.

The Bible reminds us that while we grieve, we shouldn’t “sorrow as others who have no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13). We know that death doesn’t have the final word. We remember that Jesus has won the victory over sin and the grave. His resurrection proves that there is life after death, and a glorious life for those who follow Him. Therefore when we experience the loss of a loved one, we can echo the sentiments expressed by David at the death of his infant son – “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (II Samuel 12:23).

We can’t bring our departed family members and friends back to us. And to be honest, if they are in the presence of the Lord, they will not want to come back. What they are experiencing now is so much better than even the best of circumstances on this earth. However, we can be comforted in the fact that we will go to them. And that is what we need to focus on as we move forward.  

We can grieve. We can shed tears over our loss. However, we can also rejoice in the hope we have of a future reunion. Let’s keep looking ahead to that glorious day.

 

Look to God for a Needed Boost   

One day I was walking down our church driveway when I noticed a box turtle at the edge of the pavement. Apparently it had crossed the driveway and was trying to climb over the curb to get back into the yard. However, it appeared to be stuck. It was pointed heavenward as it had been attempting to scale that cement protrusion, but wasn’t able to get over the hump. Now it was just sitting there in its upward position against the curb as if it had given up, didn’t know what to do, or simply couldn’t move. Therefore I took a moment to lift it up over what must have seemed to it to have been an insurmountable obstruction and placed it on the other side in the yard where it could continue its journey. It took very little effort on my part, as well as just a moment of my time, but it made a big difference for that turtle.

Sometimes we need a boost as we journey through life with the Lord. In reality, we are always dependent on Him and couldn’t get anywhere without His help. Jesus commented that “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We may need to put forth some effort and take some steps to get there, but without the Lord working in us and watching over us we couldn’t make any progress in our desire to know Him, to live for Him, to serve Him, and to eventually make it to our heavenly home one day.

However, sometimes we get stuck or slowed down by challenges or may just find ourselves weary and tempted to stop struggling to move forward. Like that turtle, we try to climb upward, but sometimes it seems too hard for us. We try to follow God and live according to His will as revealed in the Bible, but our world today puts all kinds of obstacles and temptations in our path that make it so difficult. We want to follow God’s call to be a holy people, but that goal seems so lofty and unreachable for fallible and weak human beings like us. We want to love others as Christ loves us, but certain people get on our nerves and make it so hard to do. We want the Lord to use us to serve Him and impact those around us, but there are so many obstacles to have to climb over in order to get there. We hit a curb and get stuck.

Thankfully, the Lord can give us a boost when we need it. I don’t think that turtle was praying for help, but he was looking upward when I encountered him. And that is what we need to keep doing too. Look to the Lord for the assistance you need. He may provide it directly Himself through His supernatural intervention, through encouragement from His Word, through reviving your soul, or through a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on you. Or He might do it indirectly through sending someone your way to lift you up and give you a helping hand. When you are stuck at a curb, pray and trust the Lord for guidance and help.

We should also be open to opportunities the Lord may give us to be the boost or help someone around us may need. Maybe God wants us to be the one to lift up someone else who is struggling. And strangely enough, I have discovered that as we help others, it tends to give our own lives a boost.

 No hurdle is so big that God can’t lift us over it. Let’s trust Him to give us that extra boost when needed, as well as to enable us to be a help to others.