Moving from Bitterness to Blessing

It’s been a while since my last blog post. Life has been up and down lately but I suppose that’s the case for everyone. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of God and struggling in this life and wondering if there really is someone up there hearing and reacting to my prayers. I try not to base my belief in God on the positive or negative situations in my life but I can’t help it sometimes. I’ve been down in the past and recently over the lack of movement and progress in my financial and career development. Plans are established and are negated before they can even be put into action. I’ve felt like I was following the “Carrot Dangling” God I wrote about previously. Hahaha! I went to church this past Sunday and the Pastor was teaching from Exodus 15.

Exodus 15:22-27

Bitter Water at Marah

²² Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. ²³ When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”).

²⁴ Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. ²⁵ So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink.

It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. ²⁶ He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

²⁷ After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water.

They weren’t out of the Will of God and as a result ran into problems. They were exactly where God wanted them to be but how they responded to this test was key. Just previously they had been celebrating and praising God for parting the Red Sea and delivering them from Pharaoh and Egypt but in the face of trouble they were complaining again. In these moments the biggest problem is that in the complaining is a lack of Trust in God. It’s a struggle but we have to learn to trust God’s Sovereign plans and God’s hidden plans. We may not know why were are dealing with what we’re dealing with but it’s an opportunity to dig in deeper and seek God harder.

My perspective on some things are beginning to change and my mood is changing. I’m changing my focus to say if I believe in God and that He sent His Son to die for me then no matter what my circumstances look like I trust that I am in His hands and that He’ll never leave me nor forsake me. I’m looking towards Christ who is the author and the finisher of my faith and I’ll say like the Apostle Paul. Whether I’m in need or have plenty I’m fine because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I don’t believe that every time we go through trouble it’s specifically God testing us. I believe that there are times when we get off course and fall into trouble and that there are times when the Enemy has thrown roadblocks in our way that need to be resisted but the process of seeking God and wholeheartedly seeking to draw closer to him makes which of these categories we call into a moot point because the end result should be us turning to the Father and leaning on him. There should be no time when we just “take it”. I don’t believe that is ever the way. We should avoid murmuring and complaining but I don’t believe God ever calls us to just “suck it up” and accept our lack and problems. There is always victory on the other side of the struggle.