Where are You in Your Journey of Faith?
We are all on a journey of faith… whether we are headed toward God or away from him.
We are all on a journey of faith… whether we are headed toward God or away from him.
In the same way that the children of Israel left their slavery behind is very much like how we can find freedom from the things that separate us from God. In order for us to be free of our past and fully trust in God, we need to understand that we too can be slaves to things that make our life miserable. It is only when we realize that we are enslaved to things like anxiety, worry, shame, guilt, food, work, lust, addiction, grief or the injury and mistakes of the past, that we can overcome them.
If we’ve made poor choices in the past, or if someone else has made a bad choice that has damaged us in unspeakable ways, we need to rediscover God. However, a textbook or religious concept of God will not help us here. What we need to understand, what every person of true faith needs to understand, and what every person in the camp of the Israelites needed to understand, is this… where is God in the painful things in life? Does He really love me? Is He truly capable of helping me? Does He want to help me? Is there a plan? Do I need to follow a person to find God?
These are the most significant questions that we will ever ask our lives. It is a place where we can move further toward a real understanding of God, an understanding that is founded in true brokenness and powerlessness… Or we can walk away from God1
Doing this requires both an honest assessment of who we are and developing a higher level of trust and faith in who God is. In the fourth chapter, we made a list of those things that have enslaved us. Now, we will use that list to take the next step in our journey across life’s desert.
It’s been said that God sends those that he loves out into the desert. If you are in life’s “desert” today, you need not be there in fear, anger, or shame, but in joyous anticipation. You won’t find a person in the entire Bible who was used to advance God’s purposes who doesn’t spend time in the desert. John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, Moses, David, Paul, and Christ himself have all been where you are. When God loves us, he sends us into the desert so those things that separate us from Him can be forever destroyed.
Spending time in the desert helps us to identify our character defects so that we can become so sick and tired of them that we will want to rid ourselves of them. If we move forward with the assurance that our lives can and will change, we will be choosing life and growth. If we hang onto the things of the past, we will be choosing death and slavery. There is no middle ground in this and no grey areas. Anything that is not of God is dead. So… why look for comfort in dead things?
To move forward in our journey of healing, we must certainly examine what got us where we are now. But, we must also see that we are exactly where we need to be right now so that God can help us destroy those things that we cannot change by ourselves. We must see ourselves in the exact same place the children of Israel found themselves as they made their way through the desert after they left Egypt.
We too, need to reach out for help. We too, need to make a decision to follow God. We too, need to accept the prospect of a new life and be given the same opportunity to live free of the things that have held us captive. However, to continue to heal, we need to get rid of the things of the past, even when they pursue us. The story that comes just before the crossing of the Red Sea is a graphic example of how most of us choose to live our lives in a crisis.
17When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." 18So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. (Exodus 13:17-18 NIV)
Many times in our lives, when we are faced with change or challenge we can become resentful and angry about it. The only way we can sustain the anger and maintain a course that is separate from God is to take the situation into our own hands and out of God’s.
Some of us go through this fight on a daily basis. We ask “Why am I here? I should be over there. People around me are not helping me, delivering me, or assisting me in the way I want them to. The opportunities and doors that I want to open for me or are not opening fast enough, or often enough for me. I am struggling financially, at work, at home, with my issues, and with the people around me.” We wonder what God wants from us.
Most of us can say that there have been times in our lives when we felt that God put us on the wrong road and that we were heading in the wrong direction. That time may be right now for you. But, here’s the thing, there is something about God that separates Him from us. He is omniscient (all-knowing) and we are not! He sees all things, knows all things, and has the ability if we allow Him, to guide us in life. God knows the best route, we only think we do.
Two important things God understands about the children of Israel are revealed in the passage above. First, the Israelites were not in a position to fight. Secondly, they were not yet free from the slavery of the past. What we are afraid of will control us. When those things do enter our lives they will demoralize, paralyze, panic, and misdirect us.
God led the children of Israel the long way around through the desert because he is not always interested in the shortest distance between two places. The same is true for us today. He is more interested in putting us on the road that we need to go down rather than showing us the easiest way out. God is more concerned with us clearly seeing Him crush the evil that has defeated us in the past. This is so that, in our brokenness, we can come to the point where we will completely trust Him with our will and our lives.
No matter how hard it is, no matter the level of pain we find ourselves (or those we love) in, we need to know this is where we are supposed to be in this time and place. Until the children of Israel faced the chariots of Pharaoh and saw the greatest power of the world crushed, they could not be truly free. To completely heal from our past, we also need to see God work in our lives, not in a way that is most comfortable for us, but in the way that is best for us.
Most of us would rather ignore, run away from or cover up our pain and invest ourselves in different things. When we merely substitute things like internet addiction for workaholism, codependency for anger, or binge eating for lust, we are choosing a different route than the one God wants for us. Instead, He wants us to squarely face the root of the pain of our past, to look it in the eye, to own it, and to ask Him to deliver us from it so He can be glorified in destroying it.
The children of Israel had seen God move in an incredible succession of miracles to liberate them from physical slavery. But He also wanted them to be free mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well. This next passage shows where the children of Israel were in their faith when their backs were against the Red Sea. First, they panicked, and then they cried out to God and blamed Moses for putting them on the wrong road.
10As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" 13Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:10-14 NIV)
Let’s look at this picture. Moses had led the Jews to the edge of the Red Sea and they began to panic when they saw Pharaoh’s men after them. God had been leading the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day and another of fire by night. He had wanted them to see Him leading them and not be distracted by their fear of the past. Because of that, God moved from a position of leading them to a place between them and the pain of the past.
19Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. (Exodus 14: 19-20 NIV)
The Israelites were not yet facing their fear of the past when they complained to Moses and wondered about returning to slavery. They were ignoring the gigantic pillar of cloud that represented the spirit of God leading their lives. To bravely face the chariots of Pharaoh all they would have had to do was to understand that God was now between them and that which would seek to injure them.
We too are at a crossroads when we come to such a place in our lives. We know that we have things in our life that are stopping us from being who God wants us to be. We know that He does not want us living in fear, shame, guilt, or regret. We know He can lead us when we seek His direction and don’t doubt the road that we are on. We know God wants us to be free of the pain of our past. But we can’t be free of all of it until we are ready to give Him that list of the things that are keeping us from finding the peace and freedom that He wants for us.
Now is the time to face the things of our past and to truly be free of them. We need to make the decision to look to the power of God (and not to ourselves or the world) to deal with these issues. That will be the first day that we begin moving towards healing and hope. If we choose to avoid the pain and take the shortcut, we will miss the miracle and remain enslaved to the things of our past and present.
Here are some questions to ponder…
1. Am I seeking God’s direction for my life on a daily basis?
2. Where do I run in the middle of a crisis?
3. Are there still things in my life that I am tired of being enslaved to, if so what are they?