2076 My Favorite Part

0:00Congratulations. Your gift of a new day is here. Ready to live it big? You're listening to the Big Life Devotional Podcast. Now, here's Pamela to get you fired up for all God has available for you today. Well, good morning, beautiful. Welcome to a brand new day of life. Happy Thursday, my friends. Okay, so you can't see this, but I want to clue you in. I decided to make today's devotional really special because we're talking about my favorite part of the old testament. So I wanted to bring you to one of my favorite places. So my mentoring girls are getting to watch the video of this. But everyone on the podcast, let me just paint the visual for you. I'm sitting on the North Shore of a Wahoo. We've got waves crashing in the background. Breezes are blowing. You might be able to hear some birds and some waves as little background noise today.

1:00It's absolutely beautiful. But I wanted to make this really special today because I'm going to be honest with you, the majority of my life, I really did not have a love for the Bible. It was a box to check that I rarely checked. And when I did, it was just to check the box so I could feel like a better person. But I wasn't in love with it. I didn't understand it. But this specific story in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus. So we've been studying Exodus and we're leading up now. We're finally to Exodus chapter 14. And this is my favorite part of the Old Testament because this is the part that it started making sense to me. And I started falling in love with God's Word. And I started being hungry for it. So today we're going to do something a little different. We're just going unplugged and unscripted and just going to read this scripture together.

2:03And then we're just going to pause along the way just to see where we can go deeper and where we can really apply this real life story in the book of Exodus to our lives. So I'm titling today's episode of the Big Life devotional podcast, my favorite part. And we're reading Exodus 14 verses five through 22. Again, I'm just going to read. And then we're just going to pause and go a little bit deeper in some sections. Okay. So when Word reached the king of Egypt that the Israel lights head fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. They're like, what are we doing guys? What have we done? Letting all those Israel lights slaves get away. They asked. So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops. He took with him 600 of Egypt's best chariots along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt each with its commander.

3:05The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So he chased after the people of Israel who had left with this raised and defiance. The Egyptians chased after them with all the forces in Pharaoh's army, all his horses and his chariots, his charioteers and his troops. The Egyptians caught up with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore of hard word across from it's another hard word. So okay, verse 10. As they were approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. Was it right of them to panic? Absolutely. Yes, they're being hunted down. They cried out to the Lord. Is that the right thing to do? You betcha it is. That's exactly the right thing to do. You cry out to God. And they said to Moses, why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?

4:09Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, leave us alone. Let us just be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness. And let's just pause right there because something's happening here that often happens to us. We remember things better than they really were. And it makes us want to go back to what was never a good situation. I wonder if you could see that in your own life. You see the Egyptians or the Israelites had been free from Egyptians from for about a week. I mean, not even a full week. They have had some freedom. And now they're getting a little bit of danger coming after them. And already they have this distorted view of their past. They're thinking Egypt was better than it really was.

5:17Remember, they were slaves under some harsh conditions in Egypt. But they're already thinking, man, it was maybe it was better back there. I want to tell you something where you were was not better than where God is taking you. You see what it was was familiar. Egypt was familiar to them. It's where they had always been where things awful there. Absolutely. But we can almost make friends with horrible conditions because it's familiar. It's what we know, right? So that's what's happening here to them is their memory is playing a trick on them. No, it was not better in Egypt. That's what they're thinking right now. But Moses told the people, don't be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.

6:19The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. If you're following along in your Bible, I encourage you to highlight underlying circle and draw arrows to the words stand still. That's what Moses says to them. No, no, no, don't you be afraid. You just stand still. Fear will cause you to run and impatience will tell you to do something right now. So when you're fearful and you're impatient, you're going to run right now and here's the problem. You might run right into a red sea and drown yourself because it's not time for you to go there yet. You have to stand in faith and you have to hold your peace as God reveals his plan. You see, here's the thing. God had a plan. He had not revealed his plan yet.

7:19So his people had to stand still. Stand still. You stand in faith. You hold your peace as you wait for God to reveal his plan. Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving. Pick up your staff, raise your hand over the sea, divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground. You see, this was time for action is what God is saying. Is there a time for prayer? You better believe it. Is there a time for seeking God's word? Absolutely. But my friends, when you get a holy prompting, then you need to make a holy move. And that's what God is saying to Moses like, all right, this is time for action. Now you can't just sit and pray on it forever and do nothing. You get a holy prompting. You need to make a holy move. Be ready to move in God's help. So God's telling him, here's what you're going to do. You're going to pick up your staff.

8:29And you're going to raise it up. And then you're going to walk right through the middle of the sea. What we have here is a situation that is so bad that the only solution was God. Maybe you're in a situation like that right now. It is so bad that the only solution is God. I want to tell you something. Psalm 46 verse 1 says that our God is a very present help in the time of need and a time of trouble. He is a present help. He is on location and he is on time. So if you're in trouble and you need help. Oh, he is a present help. And so God's going to come through for them. And he's just telling Moses, here's, here's what's going to happen. You're going to raise your hand up over the sea. You're going to divide the water so the Israelites can just walk right through the middle of the sea on dry ground. Is this something Moses could do himself? No. Did the staff have powers in his hand? No. Did Moses have the power to park the sea? Absolutely not. It was God, but God chose to work through Moses.

9:44Verse 17, God says, and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops and his chariots and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all of Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord. Then the angel of God who had been leading the people of Israel moved to the rear of the camp. Oh, what had been leading them, the angel moved to the rear of the camp, protecting them from behind now. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood beside them. The cloud settled between the Egyptians and the Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire lighting up the night, but the Egyptians and the Israelites did not approach each other all night long. So God literally stood between the Israelites and their enemies. He put his cloud, his pillar of fire between them to protect them.

10:53Verse 21, here we go, then Moses raised his hand over the sea and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the sea bed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground with walls of water on each side. What is happening here is God is making his way for his people the only way. They didn't have the option of wandering right now. Their only option was right through the sea that God parted for them. You see sometimes when it looks worst is when God is showing up to do his best. And maybe instead of God give me options, give me options, give me options, maybe our prayer could be like, Lord, give me only yours.

12:02Only your best way, your best plan, your best path. I want the best. Leave nothing else. God, I don't want the opportunity to wander around lost. I don't want the opportunity to go the wrong way. Shut them all down and leave only yours. All they had was God's way. Is that what you have right now? Like everything else has fallen apart. Everything else is a mess. And all you have left is God's way. My friends, that's actually a beautiful place to be. What will God do for you? What sea will he part? What way will he make? Oh, I don't know. But I would recommend you be obedient and you follow it. You show up for it. You stand still when God says to stand still. And then when He gives you a holy prompting, then you make a holy move.

13:05All right, my friends, may I pray with you today? I would just love an opportunity to pray with you and pray over this and so good all in. Are you ready? Let's pray together. Hey there, God. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your word that is alive and working and moving within us. God, I pray that every soul that hears this today would have a hunger and a thirst for your word. And it would change their life. Maybe this can become their favorite story and the old testament to the story that your power just comes alive through the story that causes them to trust you wildly like it has for me. Thank you for preserving this story through all these years so that we could read of your amazing works. And God, I thank you that you still work like this today that you'll still part sees for us and you will still allow every other option to absolutely fall apart.

14:14Where our only way is your way. That's what we're seeking. That's what we desire. Thank you so much for speaking to us today. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, my friends. Well, I've loved our time together. Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a fabulous day. We'll have one more devotional this week coming tomorrow. Okay, I love you wildly. Goodbye, everybody. You are created for a big life. We'll help you do it. Join us each weekday for a new big life devotional podcast. If you're ready to dive into the big life way of living, visit our website at biglifehq.com.