Words from my friend Daniel!

My friend Daniel wrote a great blog that I wanted to share with you all...

where's the water moses?

so i wonder, how many times have you stepped out on faith only to feel like you are sinking? how many times have you stepped into an unfamiliar place and find yourself everyday straining to see any signs of God's blessings in your obedience? i cannot even begin to imagine how moses felt carrying around all these people thru the desert, but in some ways i feel like i can relate to some of his grievances thru this season in my life.

i can't begin to imagine the ultra high and ultra low within such a short amount of time when moses first took his people across the red sea. they get to the other side and i can see them high-fiving, hugging, screaming, congratulating each other, and some cheesy act like putting moses on their shoulders throwing him around. the bible tells what the women did. they followed miriam around with tambourines and they all danced and sang praises to God. sounds like a party to me. but the very next 3 days were one of the biggest lows ever. they realize there is no drinkable water. how fast things can turn around. "so the people grumbled against moses, saying, 'what are we to drink?" poor moses.

can you relate? i know i can. i just recently felt like i took a huge step of faith with direction from God. i move to a new place with new people, new opportunities, new struggles. at first it was great. i felt like i had just crossed the red sea into being independent, travelling to my own "promised land". what a great feeling. how quickly we can go to the lowest of lows! the money disappears, the commitments people made to give you work are suddenly "not coming thru", and you are all alone. bills to pay, work to find, and it feels like everyone around you is asking why you can't find water. the ones that supported you so much in the dreams of the promise land, in the planning, the talk, but then when push comes to shove and there is no water to be found, the blame falls. where is this grand plan? why would you put me here to die God?

but thank goodness the story doesn't end with the israelites all withering away within a few weeks. moses doesn't lose faith. he doesn't lose the vision. he understands God's will is supreme and despite what seems impossible to him and the people all around him God will not relent. so he cries out to God. "then moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet."

i don't know about you, but i've never thought about putting a piece of wood into water to make it drinkable. i doubt moses truly had either. so maybe when you step out on faith, you try to envision what this promised land is going to look like. it helps me to calm fears and doubts when i picture the end product. so i start to rely on the people around me ... on their promises, their commitments, their words. and i realize that is not what God wanted for me. i looked for water for 3 days all around this desert to no avail. and why? because God wanted me to put a stick into the water first. He wanted to show me that His ways are not my own. His ways are not by relying on the promises of people around me, but rather throwing things in my direction beyond my imagination, beyond my vision, beyond my dreams. the bitter water is turned sweet. the visions of my mind are far outshined by the plans of His spirit in my heart.

i pray that God will allow you to search for water in your desert for a while. you will appreciate much more the stick in the water that makes it sweet.

do you think that "sweet water" could have been southern sweet tea?