And YOUR Red Sea Is ...???

Life for the believer is paved with bumps and potholes just like the unbeliever's—the advantage we, the believers, have, though, is that we have a secret superpower at our disposal. A superpower that comforts, helps ... but which sometimes we kind of forget to access. This was one of those times.

"God," I cried out in my evening prayer time, "You just have to change Dennis's heart in this matter!" While I could see the sense of Dennis's reasoning, for various reasons I felt constrained to continue down a different path.

Now, we all know the story of the Israelites at the Red Sea, stuck in a place of danger, nowhere to go, with Pharoah chasing hard behind them. Although I had never voiced my feelings, I had always thought of the Israelites in derogatory terms, deeming them the epitome of dumbness. Here they had just seen God's miraculous deliverance from Egypt, yet now at the Red Sea they don't think God can do anything? What kind of idiots were they? And, just like that, an unforgiving spiritual light bulb went off in my head.

"Aren't you just like them?" Gulp.

Here I was at my big problem, my personal Red Sea, and I was acting as desperate as those Israelites of old. How was God going to resolve this overwhelming problem???? I was laser focused on God changing Dennis's heart, yet my spirit felt distressed. What if Dennis didn't have a heart change? What would I do then????

Yikes! I WAS just like the Israelites at the Red Sea, putting God in a box, forgetting the miracles of the past, and totally unbelieving that He could intervene in the present to fix the future.

Although shaken at this revelation, Jesus's admonition, the truth will set you free, worked true deliverance in me. All stress left as I realized that if God didn't change Dennis's heart, He'd fix the problem another way, some unforeseen way like His miraculous move in parting the Red Sea.

And so my prayers continued in this vein. "I am at my Red Sea, Lord. I give this problem to You. You have never failed us in the past, and You have the answer for this, too."

Then, one incredulous morning, I became blissfully aware of the fact that though God hadn't changed Dennis's heart—He had changed mine! Despite the factors I thought constrained us to pursue a certain path, my heart and mind now felt like Dennis's. God didn't change Dennis—He changed me, something totally unforeseen and unexpected. And, in the light of this heart change, the problem was soon after resolved in a manner that gave delight to all concerned.

In the face of this lesson, my praying has taken on a welcome aspect: much less stress! Now, when faced with a problem that would have previously stressed me out, a problem that has all the makings of something insurmountable, I pray, "Lord, this is like the Red Sea to me. I leave it at Your feet. Please move on our behalf."

My cup runneth over with gratitude for this easy-peasy path to a stressless life—and a sure-fire prayer that prepares the way for God to move.

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).

"Now to him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).