Being Strong In Faith - Relying On The God Who Never Gives Up

They are exhausted!!!

For a short time they were celebrating

But now they found themselves at a dead end….

There seemed little hope

It looked like all the promises of a new life were about to fade away

Why did they listen to this man?

This man who said he was sent from God…

He had lead them here….

But how could he get it so wrong?

They were that close to freedom

But now it looked like instead of being free….

they are close to being killed

You can hear the murmuring around the crowd

“If there is a really a God…this wouldn’t be happening?”

“Why did we listen to Moses….

we would have been better staying in Egypt, serving the Egyptians??

It would have been better than listening to God!!!

At least we had food and a roof over our head.

What is God doing for us now?”

The rumbling of the chariots were getting closer….

Then from amongst the crowd steps that man…

A shabby…short looking fella

He yells to crowd in his stuttering voice…

“Do not fear!

Stand firm and see the salvation that the Lord will provide for you today!!

You will never see the Egyptians again.

The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still!!!”

“Are you kidding??” Someone murmurs

Any fool could see that they were in trouble

They were cornered

The red sea on one side

and the only way out was back from where they came…

but coming down that way were a lot of angry Egyptians in their chariots.

No wonder people were asking….”where is God now?

What is God up to?

How can we trust Moses now???

How can we trust God now???”

a middle aged man …points his finger towards Moses…

and yells….”don’t tell me to be still…where is God when we need Him.”

“why did we trust you…why did we trust God???”

Ever found yourself cornered?

Ever found yourself in a situation questioning where is God?

Why has God lead me this far…then it is like He has deserted you?

When life gets to this point….our faith in God can be challenged?

and there is the temptation to give up on God!!

Now giving up on God takes various forms

The most extreme of these is….

Rejecting God completely

Believing that there is no God

For many years Robert was a faithful worshipping Christian

Life wasn’t spectacular….but it was ok

then out of the blue

for no reason at all it happened.

As Robert’s son, Max, crossed the road

A car came around the corner

The driver wasn’t speeding

The driver just didn’t see Max

Max was killed instantly

Almost immediately Robert stopped his relationship with God

For Robert what had happened to Max and to him was unfair

He asked what many would ask,

‘How could a loving God allow this to happen?’

Not only did he ask this question…

He refused to believe God could exist

Not only had has life been rocked….

but his faith in God had been completely shattered

Robert was fortunate to have a good friend from church who stuck by him

Who continued to be a friend to him,

visit him regularly

even though Robert had openly said he no longer believed in God.

One day this friend gave him a simple little book…

If I were God, I’d end all the Pain….by John Dickson

Normally Robert would have rejected the book

But the title caught his eye

It was exactly how he felt….

IF I WAS GOD, I’D END ALL PAIN!!!

So he cautiously opened the page

What harm could reading this book do

and anyway it wasn’t too thick

Almost immediately as he opened the pages he found himself drawn to wanting to read the next word, then the next line, then the next page

He thought to himself

what could I lose….

by the time he had finished the book what he had lost was the wall he had created between him and God

After many years of rejecting God because of his pain

Robert was now back with God

allowing God to help him, to love him, to heal him

Not only had a friend never given up on him

But God never gave up on him

As Psalm 117 verse 2 says

For great is his love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.

Praise the LORD.

But for many people giving up on God is not about a complete rejection of God

But it is about not trusting God fully

and so giving up on God…

involves rejecting God’s call of allowing your whole life to be a life of following the Great Commission

of making disciples of all nations…

Frank has not always found life easy

No matter how hard he tried