The Lord Will Fight For You

Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.


Imagine that you’re playing basketball, and you have the ball. You make a shot, and completely miss. You get the ball again, and same thing happens. You just can’t make a shot no matter what. Meanwhile, God is standing there yelling at you, "I’m open, pass me the ball!!" So, you finally pass Him the ball, but instead of just letting Him do what He needs to do, you start to coach Him, "Not a lay-up, you needed to dunk the ball! Why are you shooting from there, I wanted you to make a 3-pointer," and so on.

We laugh at the idea that we would tell God what to do in that situation, and yet, that is so often what we do in life. We get into trouble, and in crying out for help we tell Him exactly how we want the problem solved. We say that we give Him control of our lives, but we’re still trying to coach Him from the side-lines.

Imagine how the Israelites must have felt when they were stuck between the Red Sea, and the oncoming Egyptian army. They actually told Moses that they would have preferred to stay in Egypt as slaves, than to die in the desert! To which Moses replied, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Then God let’s them know His plan - how He will fight for them, and basically says, "Move on!!" Much to their surprise, I’m sure, they just crossed through the Red Sea, no problem. The on-coming Egyptian army? They were consumed in the waters, never to be seen again. The Israelites completely underestimated God and His ability to care for them and deliver them, regardless of the situation, and so often we do too.

So, let me ask, why is it that we think we know how things should be done? As though we can see the big picture, we continue to tell God what would have been "better." When really, we just need to learn how to give it to God and step back, truly letting Him take the "ball," and do what needs to be done, whether it’s in our plans or not. Not only can we expect something to be done, but we can expect something huge, and huge really is what we need to expect. I know it’s been said, but it bears being said again – our God is so much bigger than we can even imagine! Our God, mine and yours – He is personal, and He is big. So let’s start expecting Him to be huge in our lives, and see what happens!