Don't Be Surprised

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you had just been hit with something that sent you spinning?  Some bad news, or an ongoing relationship that just went south, or a part of your character that you struggle with until suddenly something broke in you?

Whatever it is, we all experience things that can cause our hearts to despair--it's very hard, but also very normal.  I say that not to make light of whatever it is you are experiencing, but I do say it to let you know you aren't alone!

You aren't alone.  Can you hear that today?  Those may be the most important words you ever hear, and Jesus is wanting you to hear them loud and clear.

I don't want you to be surprised to find out that Jesus is with you no matter what it is that you are going through.  And I don't want you to be surprised to find out that He is at work in his Family--the body of believers--to raise up people who will rally around you when you most need it.  Of course, we fail all the time in doing this, and it would be a hopeless dream to imagine that there are people with God's heart out there who will help you, if it was all up to us.  But that's where God is so incredible.  He is at work in His kids to help out those who need it.

I don't want you to be surprised at any of this because if you are that means that you are really doubting if any of this is true--and it is!

In fact, I want you to know that today is a day when everything could change. 

Don't believe me?  Let me tell you a story. . . .

Many years ago a group of people found themselves oppressed and alienated by a dominant world political power.  This oppressed nation was having its back broken through brutally hard manual labor, and their spirits broken at the thought that they had been abandoned.

But then something happened. . . .circumstances began to unfold that brought them miraculously out of their bondage and they began to believe they weren't alone after all.  They escaped from their captors but soon found themselves caught between a rock and a hard-place--on the one side of them was a geographical obstacle impossible for them to pass to continue their escape, and on the other side of them was the army of that world power bearing down on them with severe anger and killing on their minds.  They were going to punish this renegade group of slaves that had thought it possible that there was hope for them to escape from their powerful grasp.

And then hope was gone.  This trapped nation had been immersed in perpetual defeat and despair for generations, and this little glimmer of hope for freedom and a new way of life was going to be snatched away once and for all.  I bet there were some there that day that even welcomed death because they were just done.

God, however, had different plans that day.  He made a way where no way was possible.  He divided a sea!!  He parted waters so that this beaten down nation could walk through to safety, and then after they had passed, God dealt with that arrogant powerhouse of a nation that thought itself invincible.

In a blink of an eye, defeat and despair turned into joy and hope.

Do you think your problems are bigger than a sea?  Do you think they go beyond the ability of God to overcome?  Do you think God would do things like that for people if He didn't care?

Don't be surprised if today is the day that God decides to bring hope into your life where there once was none.

You know, as I think about it. . . . .God is kind of a big deal.

BT