The Red Sea Rules: Week 5

"One night when I was worried sick about something, I found four words sitting quietly on page 1291 of my Bible. I’d read them countless times before, but as I stared at them this time, they fairly flew at me like stones from a slingshot. The four words, now well underlined in my New International Version, are leave room for God.

The immediate context, Romans 12:19, involves retribution. When someone harms us, advised the writer, we shouldn’t try to get even, but should leave room for God’s wrath. There are times when we need to let Him settle the score. But if we can leave room for God’s wrath, I reasoned, can we not, when facing other challenges, leave room for His other attributes? For His power? For His grace? For His intervention? I underlined the words leave room for God and have leaned on them ever since." — Robert Morgan, The Red Sea Rules ​

Want to read all 10 posts in one place? Download The Red Sea Rules eBook for free today!

"I cannot solve every problem, cure every hurt, or avoid every fear, but I can leave room for God. I don’t have the answer to every dilemma, but I can leave room for God to work. I can’t do the impossible, but He is able to do 'exceedingly abundantly above all' that I could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). The Lord delights in the impossible." —Robert Morgan, The Red Sea Rules ​

​Life is hard. If we wanted to, I’m sure that we could make a very long list of all kinds of struggles life has thrown at each of us. Each and every one of us is facing some kind of difficulty today. Life is always presenting us with challenges. That’s why this summer we are concentrating on how to trust God in difficult times.

We’re using this little book by Robert Morgan called The Red Sea Rules. I find this book so helpful in thinking through what it actually means to live by faith. We're so glad you've joined us!

We meet here each Tuesday morning at 9:00, through August 6. If you can’t join us on Tuesday mornings, no worries. Anytime during the week, when it’s convenient for you, read that week’s chapter in the book and the corresponding blog post. Then join the conversation down in the comments section— that's really where the good stuff is! It's a space for you to share your heart, and for us to rally around you like cheerleaders for the faith.

​Still need to get the book? Click here to order or download your copy (less than $10 for the hardcover and less than $2 for the Kindle version).

Need to catch up? Read Week 1 here, Week 2 here, Week 3 here, and Week 4 here.

“I am waiting on Thee, Lord, to open the way.” —J. Hudson Taylor

"Moses said to the people: 'Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.'" Exodus 14:13–14

Stand still the Lord will fight for you

On December 12, 1987, around midnight, I received a phone call from my mom who, at the time, lived in Florida. She called to tell me that my sister had been killed in an automobile accident. Ginger was a bright and vivacious young woman. She was eighteen years old and had just that year graduated from high school. She decided to take a gap-year (ahead of her time, obviously) before attending college. Ginger never had the opportunity to attend college. Late that Saturday night, on her way home from work, a drunk driver crossed the center line and hit her head-on.

Ginger’s story has made me do a lot of thinking over the years. First, it’s a reminder that none of us know how long we’re going to live. None of us! No matter what age we are at, we need to be prepared for eternity.

I need to be direct:

• Are you prepared to die?
• Are you trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
• Are you counting on Him and His death and resurrection to make you acceptable before God?

Please do not put that decision off! You don’t know how long you have to live. If you have questions about your eternal security please stop and read this now.

Over the past thirty-two years I have thought about the fact that none of us know how long we’re going to live. But I have not just been thinking about death and eternity. I’ve also been thinking about life and faith. How do you go on living when out of the blue your eighteen-year-old sister is killed? How do you go on living when out of the blue your eighteen-year-old daughter dies? How do you go on living when that kind of tragedy shatters your life?

"​Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities." Psalm 130:1-8

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Post Continued

Let’s review the rules we have looked at so far:

Red Sea Rule #1: Realize that God means for you to be where you are. Of all the rules, this is the one that can be so easily misunderstood. It does not mean that everything that happens in life is pleasant or good. That’s not the point at all! Evil happens. But even in the midst of horrendous evil, God has not abandoned His people. As strange as it may initially sound, the problems that you and I face have come into our lives by God’s appointment and for His purpose. For our good and for His glory. We may not understand God’s purpose, but we can be assured that God is still with us. It is with that attitude that we face our trials and difficulties and realize that God means for us to be where we are.

Rule #2: Be more concerned for God’s glory than for your relief. The first question that should come to our minds is not How can I get out of this mess? We need to train ourselves to ask instead: How can I honor God in this situation? and be more concerned for His glory than our own relief.

Rule #3: Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord. Take a good hard look at your problem. Don’t pretend that it is not there. But be careful that you don’t allow yourself to be so consumed by your problem that you forget about God Himself. Remember to acknowledge your enemy and keep your eyes of the Lord.

Rule #4: (It’s the shortest one.) Pray! It's as simple as that. Pray!

And now we come to Rule #5.

​Red Sea Rule #5: Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work.

Remember what Robert Morgan underlined in his Bible? Leave room for God. Give consideration to the work of God.

“In times of great difficulty and great expectation, it is our wisdom to keep our spirits calm, quiet, and sedate; for then we are in the best frame both to do our own work and to consider the work of God.” —Matthew Henry

I want you to know that I do not like this rule!

I don’t like anything about it. Stay calm. That does not come natural to me. I find it much easier to panic! Stay calm and confident. Confident? But worry comes rushing in without me even giving it any thought. And give God time to work. That’s the hardest part of this rule. 

I do not like this Rule #5. Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work. I don’t like it, but I also know that I need to learn this rule and I need to put this rule into practice in my life.

​So why does He want me to give Him time to accomplish His purposes?

“In our distresses in life when trapped by the Red Sea, we must trust God with the impossible and leave room for Him to work, for the Lord has promised to fight for us.” — Robert Morgan, The Red Sea Rules ​

God is not in a hurry

We don’t need to read very far into God’s Word to learn that God is not in a hurry.
In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we read how God promises Abraham and Sarah a baby. We talked about that in The Red Sea Rules: Week 3 post. But fifteen years pass before they have that baby (Geneses 16:16; 17:1). Fifteen years! What took God so long?

Think about the story of God rescuing the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt and bringing them through the Red Sea. It’s an inspiring story of how God parts the waters and leads the people out. But it’s also true that the Israelites have been enslaved by Pharaoh for at least eighty years before God has Moses lead them out (Exodus 7:7). Why does God wait that long before He rescues His people?

We find the same thing in the New Testament. Jesus hears that His good friend, Lazarus, is sick. Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, send word to Jesus asking Him to come. So what does Jesus do? He stays where He is for two more days. By the time He arrives, Lazarus is dead (John 11:1-6).

There are other examples as well, but just those three demonstrate that God does not work according to our timetable. He is just not in the same hurry that we are. And sometimes that drives us nuts, doesn’t it?

“The battle is not yours, but God’s....You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed." II Chronicles 20:15, 17

It's a human tendency to be impatient and to want God to hurry up

That’s been true for all time, but we have an even more difficult time accepting this truth than previous generations. We live in an age of fast food, breaking news and cell phones. We email and text message and Tweet. We have learned to expect next-day delivery on almost anything from Amazon and instantaneous access to what is happening around the world. We click BUY NOW for products on the Internet and news is available to us there and on TV twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. We are in a hurry like no generation before us. But God hasn’t changed.  God still works according to His own timetable, not ours.

“Many times we cannot solve problems, heal hurts, change circumstances, or win our own battles. We must kneel in prayer, then stand to see what He will do. We must leave room for God, staying calm and giving Him time to work.” — Robert Morgan, The Red Sea Rules ​

We need to learn how to wait

Psalm 130:5 says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope.” There’s an example that is given to us to follow. Psalm 27:14 puts it in the form of an instruction: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

“Faith raises the soul above the difficulty, straight to God Himself, and enables one to stand still. We gain nothing by our restless and anxious efforts... It is therefore true wisdom, in all times of difficulty and perplexity, to stand still—to wait only upon God, and He will assuredly open a way for us.” — C. H. Mackintosh

Why do we have to do that? Why does God tell us to wait for Him? We could explore that question at some length, but let’s think of just one reason. There is nothing like waiting that humbles us.

When you are waiting for something, there isn’t anything that you can do, is there? You’re expecting some important package to be delivered to you. What can you do to make it arrive earlier? Nothing. You have to wait. Maybe you can track your package using the latest technology. You can find out where it is, but that doesn’t make it get to you any sooner. You still have to wait for it to arrive.

Waiting humbles us

God makes us wait so that we are forced to grapple with how limited we human beings really are. We like to think of ourselves as empowered. Isn’t that one of the trendy words of our day? People need to feel empowered! But God makes us wait so that we realize how little empowered we really are. God humbles us so that we learn how dependent on Him we truly are. So whether we like Rule #5 or not, we need to learn to live by it. Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work.

How can we wait? How do we persevere?

How do you do that? When you and I feel overwhelmed by worry and on the verge of panic, how can we stay calm and confident, and give God time to work? Or, if we put it in biblical terminology: How can you and I learn to persevere? The Bible has a lot of things to say about perseverance. Think of the memory verse that goes along with Red Sea Rule #5. ​

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36

How can you and I learn to persevere? Can you think of any examples of perseverance? When I think of perseverance, I think of William Carey. He was the first modern missionary to go to India. He sailed there from England in 1793, and he stayed in India for forty years. He never took a furlough to go back to England. While he was there, his five-year-old son died. His wife became mentally deranged. He preached for seven years before even one person was converted. One time a fire swept through his building, and he lost years and years of translation work. Someone asked him what the key to his ministry was. He said, “I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”

There was the key. He could plod. When he felt like giving up, he didn’t do anything dramatic. He would just put one foot in front of the other and kept moving in the right direction. He didn’t get anywhere quickly, but he always kept moving toward his goal. He could plod. That’s what we need to learn to do. Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work. Persevere. Put one foot in front of the other. Learn to plod!

I will admit to you that I have not learned the practice of perseverance, but here are four things that I’ve found helpful:

1. Remember God. Don’t let yourself lose sight of God. I know that sounds obvious, but don’t you find it easy to forget God as you move through your daily activities? I do. I can get so wrapped up in the small things that make up our home life that I forget all about God. That may come as a surprise to you, but it is true.
   
   I find that I have to make a conscious and deliberate effort to read and think about some part of God’s Word every day. It doesn’t happen naturally like I wish it did. I repeat to myself some Bible promise that I have memorized. I often find myself thinking of what God said to Joshua in the Old Testament. “I will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5). In the New Testament that promise is given to all of us who are trusting in Christ. Hebrews 13:5 says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” It’s just one simple sentence, but I need to be reminded of it again and again. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Remember God and make a conscious and deliberate effort to remember His promises.
   
   
2. Here’s a second thing that helps me persevere. Trust God—for one hour at a time. Sometimes I find that it’s asking too much for me to trust God with an indefinite amount of time. I know that I should be able to do that, but I can’t. Sooner or later I snatch the problem back from God and start to worry about it all over again. So, I have to discipline myself. I say to God, Lord, I’m really finding it hard to trust You with this thing. I’m really having a hard time waiting for Your solution to my problem. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to turn this problem over to You for the next hour. I think, God, that for the next sixty minutes I can leave this problem to You. So I’m going to put it into Your hands, and I’m going to turn my attention to something else. When that hour is up, I try to turn it over to Him for another hour.
   
   I’m a real giant of the faith, aren’t I? But that’s what I do. Try it out yourself. See if it works for you. Trust God—for one hour at a time.
   
   
3. Here’s a third suggestion for you. Thank God. Remember God. Trust God—for one hour at a time. Now spend some time thanking God. That’s hard to do when you’re depressed or worried. I know. That’s my experience too. At first nothing comes to mind that you can be thankful for. Nothing! But when you work at it, you can always find something to thank God for. It’s OK to start with something really small. Thank you, God, for the breakfast I ate this morning. It was the same old stuff that I eat every morning, but at least I had something to eat. Thank you, God. Then keep working at it. Thank you, God, that I’ve got clothes to wear. They’re not fashionable, but they do a pretty good job of covering me up.
   
   All of us have things that we can be thankful for. Decide to be thankful today. Consciously giving thanks to God even when you don’t feel very grateful is one of the most important elements of perseverance. If you train yourself to give thanks, you’ll find that you will be more calm and more confident while you are waiting for God to work.
   
   Remember God—and His promises. Trust God—for one hour at a time. Thank God—even when you don’t feel like it.
   
   
4. And here’s a fourth element to perseverance and waiting upon the Lord. Obey God. I once heard someone describe sin as trying to find a shortcut to something that is good. I think that’s a pretty good description. Sin doesn’t necessarily mean that you are actively pursuing something that is bad. You may very well be seeking after something that’s good in and of itself. The sin enters in when you try to take hold of that good thing in the wrong way.
   
   Suppose you’re looking for a job. You know that it is God’s will for you to work and earn a living. Having a job is a good thing, isn’t it? But when you find yourself looking and looking and looking still more, you can easily find yourself saying, Maybe I’ll rework my résumé. I’ll add just a few things. No, I haven’t really done all those things. But I’ve got to get a job! Other people embellish their résumés, so what would be wrong with me doing it too? God will understand!—won’t He? Can you see yourself starting to think that way? 
   
   What are you doing when you reason with yourself that way? You are after something good, but you’re trying to find a shortcut to that good thing. That’s where you and I need to be so very careful. That’s where the sin comes in. Watch out! That is not a sign of staying calm and confident. Make sure that you obey God. Don’t take any shortcuts—even when it’s tough.​

Remember God | Trust God | Thank God | Obey God

“If you’re in a difficult place right now, perhaps you need to entrust the problem to the Lord and leave it in His hands awhile. He alone can storm the impregnable, devise the improbable, and perform the impossible. He alone can part the waters.” — Robert Morgan, The Red Sea Rules ​

Read The Red Sea Rules: Week 6 here.

​​This week's discussion questions:

1. Has your personal Red Sea produced a panic-prone reaction from you? Please describe.
2. What instructions did Moses give the people of God in Exodus 14:13?
3. Rewrite that verse (Exodus 14:13) in a personal way, as though you were listening to God say those words just to you.
4. What do you think it means to “stand firm” (Exodus 14:13)? How can you improve your ability to do that in your current situation?

​
​Can I challenge you to memorize Hebrews 10:35-36 with me this week?

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36

portions of this post are quoted from www.efcbemidji.org

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The Red Sea Rules 5x5 press prints available at Etsy

We are halfway through our Summer Book Club-Style Bible Study with this wonderful little book The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times. Some of you have noticed and asked about the graphics we are using here and over on Instagram so, we've made those available in our Etsy shop.

​These lovely 5x5 press prints are great to have around your home or office, even in your car, to remind you of the 10 Red Sea Rules! We all need reminders, right? I know I do! 

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