Have you been in a tight corner? In Exodus chapter 14, verse 15 we read of the children of the Israelites being caught in a corner with the Red Sea in front of them and Egypt’s chariots behind them. It is not surprising to read that they acted like frightened sheep! They felt utterly abandoned. But when a sudden voice rang like a trumpet through their trembling ranks encouraging them to go forward, the soul of the people awoke to life. They found that they had courage to go forward, and when they did, they found that wonderful things happened. That call made them men, God’s men. They learned for the whole world that to go bravely forward trusting in God is to give God a chance to reveal His power!
There is a time to stand still and there is also certainly a time to wait in prayer upon God for His help and guidance, but these stages only bear their fruit when we pluck up courage and go forward. Nothing can happen till then. God has no chance to answer our prayers till then. We can learn from those far off days in the annals of Israel till our present day, that splendid rallying cry has been the very Word of God to His people whenever they fall despondent and fear what is to come. “Speak unto the Children of Israel that they go forward. It is His Word to us today.
Those who are facing difficult tasks, duties that frighten or responsibilities that weigh heavy need to have their blood stirred and their courage stiffened by being told in God’s name to go straight up to the thing whatever it is and do it. You know best what your particular Red Sea is, you have no doubt stood still and looked at it, and I am sure you have prayed about it, but it is still there, God’s ordained obstacle in your way. Well, His Word to you is Forward March. The time for prayer is past, now give God a chance to answer it now.
Things happen, wonders happen, even miracles happen when we go forward trusting in His Word. Gates open apparently of their own accord, mountains of difficulty dwindle into climbable slopes, the very sea has a path through it after all. Forward then with your trust in God no matter what is to come.
Furthermore, there is a message here for all of us who are perplexed and doubting souls, even to us there is a way out, and the way is just right forward. A man who has lost faith in prayer stops praying, he gives the habit up, is this not so, whereas his way of deliverance is to go on. Even though he is in doubt as to whether God hears him, even then for he will never learn the truth about prayer if he gives up the practice no matter what his doubts are, or what his anxieties are and moreover he will come to have no desire to learn, but pray on and the faith and justification will surely come again.
Again, this is a message for every soldier in the army of Christ. Moods come to most strenuous people when they sit down and try to reckon up the prospects of success. Despondence is also apt to find them when they are too easy prey to the enemy. One cannot be a Christian and admit that someday the spirit of this world will conquer the spirit of Christ. This wave or that one as you watch them comes in at last for all that. Remember God is as willing as ever to deliver those who put their trust in Him. The Name of Christ still casts out devils from men’s lives. It only seems that the glory has departed because we stand shivering on the brink of the great new tasks to which God is calling us. Let us all go bravely forward, and the sea will be divided for us again.
John.
