Listen to YouTube:’10,000 reasons lyrics’
The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning it's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me let me be singing when the evening comes
Bless the Lord, O my soul - O my soul, worship His holy name
Sing like never before O my soul - I'll worship Your holy name
(Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman © 2011 ThankYou Music)
Thank the Lord for all the ways in which he has blessed you during lock-down
On the Website you can see two new pictures. A photo of the gift we gave to Lara, as she retires and returns home to Nigeria, and a picture Danielle Kemp has painted to help us remember our Covenant verse Deuteronomy 6: 4-5
That picture shows the parted Red Sea, with Moses leading the Israelites through it.
You might think that these Old Testament events have little to do with our own lives.
We have never been slaves; our lives aren’t lived as nomads in the wilderness. But what if I said that for these Israelites, life has started a new phase – a new normal. They didn’t at this point realises that there would be many more new-normals for them to adjust to. They probably had the expectation that once they had come through the horrendous period of the plagues in Egypt, life was now going to be fine – full of sunshine & happiness. But that was the new problem – Life was full of sunshine – too much sunshine. Read Exodus 15: 22-27
So, less than a week after they had trusted God’s promise - that if they put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts then they would know life when all around them were confronting death, and 3 days since they had experienced God’s care for them as he miraculously opened up a way through the Red Sea, they face another problem - and they were struggling to trust that God would continue to take care of them
Because it is not us feeling so very thirsty and thinking of nothing else except how to quench our thirst, we can’t understand why they can’t continue to trust God. I have a theory as to why they found it hard to continue trusting God - I wonder if it is because they knew the solution to this problem - they needed water
The problem of escaping from slavery in Egypt was something they couldn’t think of a solution to, until God brought Moses into their lives. The problem of crossing the red sea – there was no answer to it until God gave them a solution that had never entered their minds. But dying of thirst – they knew the solution to that problem they didn’t need to bother God with this one, they knew what they needed
Does that relate to your life? The ‘impossible’ situations where you have no solution, you immediately call out to God for help. But when we think we know what the resolution to the problem is, we just moan about it to anyone who will listen. And have you ever experienced what happened next? The Israelites found the solution to their problem. They found water – but it was undrinkable! Have you ever found what you thought was the answer you were looking for only to discover it didn’t solve the problem at all!
So I am not justifying the attitude of the Israelites, but showing that their reactions were not so different to how we often react to problems. Their circumstances are nothing like ours, but their emotions – their human nature is very like our own – and so these events have a lot to teach us. For these Israelites, life was a lot more stressful than it needed to be, because they were not remembering God’s promise which Moses has shared with them just a few days earlier. Exodus 14: 13 ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today.
Before you judge them for forgetting, just think how quickly we forget what we read about God. Also they may have thought this promise was made when they were facing a completely different problem to the one they are now facing - they were still on the other side of the Red Sea when Moses gave them this promise from God. But God promises do remain true, unchanging.
It appears that Moses has not forgotten God’s promise because as the people all around him grumbled, he continues to trust that God loves them and wants to take care of them. Moses does what the gift we gave to Lara says: Pray – trust – wait – and that gave him the answer to the problem
The answer to the problem isn’t a new source of water (which is probably what everyone thought the answer was), but God transforms / renews the water. God makes the water ‘fit for purpose’, God redeems the water from being useless to fulfilling what it was created to do. That is the unchanging nature of God to redeem, renew, transform
Then, having quenched their thirst and filled up their water containers - they moved on and the next new-normal was a large oasis – 12 springs of water – 70 palm trees! Life was good – and so the Israelites felt they could look after themselves and once again forget about God and his promises.
A few weeks later another problem arises and we same the same cycle of events happening. The people panic – get angry - Moses says remember God’s promises, and he prays – trusts – waits - and the problem is solved - until the next time
We may scratch out heads and say how come they couldn’t see how God was taking care of them in each and every new-normal and yet we probably fail to as well. So as we experience new-normals, we can be sure that God loves us and cares for us. So no matter what the new-normal looks like we can “not be afraid! Stand firm and see God at work”
Listen on YouTube: ‘God will make a way’
Let these familiar lyrics lead you into prayer asking God to help you to remember his help in the past and trust him to help you in the days ahead.
Guide me, O thou great Jehovah pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand:
Bread of heaven – Bread of heaven, feed me now & evermore.
Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through:
Strong deliverer - Strong deliverer, be Thou still my strength & shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside:
death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan's side:
Songs of praises - Songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee.
William Williams (1717-91))