Obeying And Glorifying God

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. – Exodus 14:21-22

We learned yesterday about the importance of trusting God wherever He leads. Today I want us to look at two other things we need to learn today if our backs are against the wall, just like Moses’ was when he came upon the Red Sea.

In addition to trusting God wherever He leads, we should also obey God whenever He speaks. If you are willing to do what you can do, God will do what you can’t do. It is in those moments you can’t panic. You’ve got to trust in the presence of God. You’ve got to listen to the voice of God. He will speak to you. He will talk to you. He will show you what to do, but once you’ve done all you know to do, then you simply wait and watch and see what God will do.

Time and time again in Scripture, we see God speak clearly to His people, letting them know which path they should take, and which course of action they should pursue. Because we can see that element of God’s character in His Word, we can trust that He can do the same thing with us today. God doesn’t have to speak audibly for you to hear Him. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit can speak to your heart. He can speak to you through His Word. He can even speak to you through someone else. But if God is trying to tell you to do something, it’s important that you listen up so that you can move forward in obedience.

Finally, no matter what situation you find yourself in, you should always glorify God whatever He does. If you don’t learn something about God early on in your relationship with Him, you are going to be frustrated, angry, bitter, and disappointed. God’s way is always the right way. It is always the best way, but it is not always the easy way. God was not going to make this easy for the Israelites, otherwise, they would think they did it on their own. If they had escaped, if they had somehow beaten back the attack, they would get the glory. They would pat themselves on the back. Once again, God would be left out in the cold, but God always has a method to His madness.

If God leads you to a wall, it is His job to bring the wall down. If God leads you to a door, it is His job to open it. If God leads you to a sea, it is His job to part it. However, there is another side to the coin. Everything that God does for us is not just for His glory; it is by His grace. At the end of the day when the Hebrews walked along the seashore and saw it littered with dead Egyptian bodies, one thing was obvious. They hadn’t raised a finger to do anything. They hadn’t killed a single man, fought a single battle, or used a single sword. They had followed where God led them to go. They had done what God told them to do and they believed what God said He would do. So when God comes through like this, we need to give Him glory, because it was by Him and Him alone that we were taken care of.

Dear Lord, when my back is up against the wall, I want to trust you, I want to obey you, and I want to glorify you. When I’m tempted to do anything else or react any other way, I pray that you would remind me of Moses’ story and that I would follow his example so that I might have a strong and mighty faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.