You are the God of miracles and wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations. Your road led through the [Red] Sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there! Psalm 77:14, 19
I love watching God perform miracles in my life. The trouble is, I don't love the exact moment I need a miracle.
Obviously, when I need a miracle, things aren't looking too good. The sea is ahead of me (the impossible), the chariots are closing in behind me (voice of the enemy with lies and attacks), and there is really nowhere else to go. Every nerve ending in my heart screams, FEAR! Every brain cell in my head screams DISCOURAGEMENT! I feel exactly like the old, dry bones in Ezekiel who proclaimed, "All hope is gone" (Ez. 37:11). Who ever wants to feel that way? Who would actually ask for that kind of life?
But what I'm learning is this: If I want the Divine Romance…if I want the miracles…if I want to see God do the impossible through me and watch Him arrange the details of my life in an inspiring and amazing way, I'm going to have to accept (welcome?) Red Sea moments. I'm going to have to ask God to put me in places and circumstances that require His intervention (even last minute), lest I settle for a boring, uneventful, insignificant, miracle-less, nothing-to-write-home-about life.
Living a Red Sea life is going to require a few very important tools in my backpack.
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Daily Dependence: Staying connected to the Vine for encouragement and instructions.
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Trust: Unlearning the lies about God, replacing them with truths about His faithful character, and filling my heart with the testimonies of others who have been victorious.
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Courage: Chasing my fears down instead of running away from them.
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Hope: Hanging onto God's promises, even when everything seems counterintuitive.
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Community: Surrounding myself with other Red Sea people, even if I have to find them in books.
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Un-drama: Giving up the whining, complaining, and doubting that puts all the focus on me and works against what God is trying to do.
The fact is, when I surrender myself to His plan for my life, there will be Red Sea moments. Maybe even lots of them, and always in the places where He leads me. I will find in these impossible circumstances that He's never early, but He's never late, either. At just the right time, new pathways will be opened up through the impossible circumstances—pathways that I never even knew existed.