In a bind
On this WCW (that's Woman Crush Wednesday to my older readers), I'm crushing on my friend Gracious. She always brings so much depth every time she hits the pulpit that it's almost impossible to take notes, let alone interpreting for her. So I challenged her to write up a post for me, maybe then I would be able to take up everything in one seating without having to buy a DVD (we're saving in all ways since the Rand is taking a beating). So here we go, hush everything around you and drink from this cistern God has blessed us with (oh and grab a dictionary, I don't know how she accumulated such a rich vocabulary). Enjoy!
I was taking a walk the other day as I usually do to clear my mind. I wandered into an internal stocktaking moment of my life. The more I counted, the more I realized that I had come a long way even though I wasn't where I wanted to be. I also realized that I was in a bind, having reached the maximum of this season. Every solution I came up with for my bind lead me to conclude that every way out required me to start from scratch. I was about to crumble and abandon my quest for a solution when the Holy Spirit intercepted my thoughts with this: "sometimes deliverance looks like loss but it is actually God making an opportunity for you to explore His ability to create something out of nothing, raising you above the standard."
My heart was immediately taken to the story of the Israelites in Exodus 13 and 14 who where being led out of Egypt - their bind, where they had experienced all sorts of limitation. They had what they needed to survive but it was not what God had spoken of them thus their cry. Because that is want limitations do; they make you cry out for more when you realize that this cannot be all there is. Bondage is being limited in power to live out your full potential in Christ; it is being bound, tied up, captured in a place, relationship, job, financial situation or illness where you are not functioning at the optimum.
Bondage usually sets the standard, the principle, the rule, determined by the enemy, that you ought to engage with in that set area of your existence. Which means the bondage dictates your threshold of what is reasonable, acceptable, normal and bearable. This is also where your definition of loss would be derived from. This definition keeps you walking within the bind and robs you of entering into your solution because no one wants to leave something for nothing, little is better than nothing at all; which was the case with the Israelites.
In the story, they have left the the place of their bind and are following Moses according to God's response to their cry for change when they reach the Red Sea. The standard of existence that the Egyptians had set began to declare loss according to its threshold. This is where they begin to reject and deny their rescue, sabotaging themselves and denying themselves the opportunity God was affording them to realize who he had called them to be. Moses responds to their self-sabotaging ways with truth: 'Do not be afraid...The Lord will fight for you, you need just be still.'
This is the only way to respond to the enemy coming in like a flood, by redirecting ones thoughts from the principle set against you and focusing on the truth of God's ability which brings us to peace that reeks of confidence in God. Peace that is the 'still' Moses speaks of in verse 14.
In verse 21 we see Moses exploring God's ability to make a way where there was none on behalf of Israel by using his staff to part the waters; and now that they had trusted and rested in who God is, they were walking on dry land between the walls of water. Walking in the raised standard - liberation. Doing better things and greater things than what they had done in Egypt.
What am I saying? Don't look at God's deliverance plan through the standard set by the enemy. Though it may feel like loss it's actually God plunging you into something new and better. Respond to the opportunity for change with confidence knowing that the breaking always produces more (remember the two fish and five loaves?). Decrease means refinement in God's hand and loss reconfiguration to strength. Where the demand is more than supply, value is increased. Don't fear, trust God. Deliverance may feel like loss but it's a call to God's raised standard.
I was taking a walk the other day as I usually do to clear my mind. I wandered into an internal stocktaking moment of my life. The more I counted, the more I realized that I had come a long way even though I wasn't where I wanted to be. I also realized that I was in a bind, having reached the maximum of this season. Every solution I came up with for my bind lead me to conclude that every way out required me to start from scratch. I was about to crumble and abandon my quest for a solution when the Holy Spirit intercepted my thoughts with this: "sometimes deliverance looks like loss but it is actually God making an opportunity for you to explore His ability to create something out of nothing, raising you above the standard."
My heart was immediately taken to the story of the Israelites in Exodus 13 and 14 who where being led out of Egypt - their bind, where they had experienced all sorts of limitation. They had what they needed to survive but it was not what God had spoken of them thus their cry. Because that is want limitations do; they make you cry out for more when you realize that this cannot be all there is. Bondage is being limited in power to live out your full potential in Christ; it is being bound, tied up, captured in a place, relationship, job, financial situation or illness where you are not functioning at the optimum.
Bondage usually sets the standard, the principle, the rule, determined by the enemy, that you ought to engage with in that set area of your existence. Which means the bondage dictates your threshold of what is reasonable, acceptable, normal and bearable. This is also where your definition of loss would be derived from. This definition keeps you walking within the bind and robs you of entering into your solution because no one wants to leave something for nothing, little is better than nothing at all; which was the case with the Israelites.
In the story, they have left the the place of their bind and are following Moses according to God's response to their cry for change when they reach the Red Sea. The standard of existence that the Egyptians had set began to declare loss according to its threshold. This is where they begin to reject and deny their rescue, sabotaging themselves and denying themselves the opportunity God was affording them to realize who he had called them to be. Moses responds to their self-sabotaging ways with truth: 'Do not be afraid...The Lord will fight for you, you need just be still.'
This is the only way to respond to the enemy coming in like a flood, by redirecting ones thoughts from the principle set against you and focusing on the truth of God's ability which brings us to peace that reeks of confidence in God. Peace that is the 'still' Moses speaks of in verse 14.
In verse 21 we see Moses exploring God's ability to make a way where there was none on behalf of Israel by using his staff to part the waters; and now that they had trusted and rested in who God is, they were walking on dry land between the walls of water. Walking in the raised standard - liberation. Doing better things and greater things than what they had done in Egypt.
What am I saying? Don't look at God's deliverance plan through the standard set by the enemy. Though it may feel like loss it's actually God plunging you into something new and better. Respond to the opportunity for change with confidence knowing that the breaking always produces more (remember the two fish and five loaves?). Decrease means refinement in God's hand and loss reconfiguration to strength. Where the demand is more than supply, value is increased. Don't fear, trust God. Deliverance may feel like loss but it's a call to God's raised standard.
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