Hope-Filled Christian
Hope-Filled Christian
Navigating Life's Mighty Waters
Have you ever faced a situation so impossible, you couldn't see a way out? What if we told you that, just like Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, God has already laid out a path for you through life's most difficult challenges? This week, we dive into the powerful imagery of Psalm 77 and how it illuminates God's unwavering presence in our lives, even when we can't see His footprints.
From tight deadlines to health issues, financial struggles to social pressures, we all grapple with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But as we draw parallels between the biblical story of Moses and our own experiences, we discover that with trust and respect, we can find our way to a promised land. Listen in and uncover how embracing God's guidance can help you navigate through the mighty waters of life.
Songs of the Week:
Oceans - Hillsong
This is Our God - Phil Wickham
Big God - Terrian
Hi and welcome back to this week's episode of HFC. So this week we're looking at Psalm 77, and the first that we're going to be specifically looking at is Psalm 77, verse 19,. But I wanted to read the entire section, just because the other section just I don't know how to put it other than it just hits my brain and it's like wow, it's impressive. There's nothing related to talk about for those sections, but it just sounds pleasing. I guess I'll go ahead and read it and hopefully it'll make sense. So, starting with Psalm 77, verse 16, and then we'll stop at 19, which is what we're going to be looking at. Psalm 16, oh sorry. Verse 16 says the water saw you, god. The water saw you and writhed. The very depths were convulsed, the clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder, your arrows flashed back and forth, your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world. The earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. Like I said, i just that first verse. I just there's something about it that just is just like wow to me, and it's not necessarily what I want to talk about, but it's just like I could not read that section and not include that. The water saw you, god. The water saw you and writhed. The very depths were convulsed by just the mere sight of him, by the mere presence. Now, that's that's. That's a kind of presence. Well, you know quotation marks. Anyway. So, verse 19,. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. And there's nothing, i guess, super deep that's set out to me, unless I guess, i don't know, like the wording there. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. It just brings up imagery of, you know, when Moses and the Israelites were fleeing from Egypt, and they're going through that water.
Speaker 1:And I guess the thoughts that come to me are impossible. Does it make sense? Uncertain, unsure, illogical, because these are the words that pop up into my mind when I'm thinking. You know where should we walk? Like if I was going to decide where I should make my path and you know how I should get to a certain place, my least, you know, or my last choice, would be to make a path through the waters, through the ocean, or through waves, or through anything that's, you know, not a straight path on, like a road or something. It's like if I was going on a GPS or something and the GPS told me to drive off a cliff, like that just doesn't make sense to me, that's illogical. Or if I'm driving and the GPS says turn right here and it's into a deep, deep ocean or a lake or something, it just doesn't make sense. I cannot see the path there, i cannot see where I should be going, i cannot see how I should be going or why I should be going in that direction.
Speaker 1:And so I guess, in the same way, this verse is making me imagine those things. It's putting into mind that imagery of being that person at the edge of the oceans, of being Moses and the Israelites as they approach the ocean and have no idea how in the world they're supposed to cross this. In my mind, i'm like great Moses just screwed us. We're about to die. Thank you, Moses. We escaped, only to be murdered out here. And you know those Egyptians are going to be upset. They're probably going to torture us in some way or, you know, dole out their wrath somehow. It's not going to be like a pleasant death, like, oh, old age or something at least That's what I always assume is a pleasant death, just dying from the fact of dying, naturally. And so I'm imagining this and I'm imagining approaching the Red Sea and I'm imagining in my mind the thoughts that would be coming up, the thoughts of this is impossible, This is illogical, this does not make sense. There is no visible or reasonable way to choose this as my path forward. But that's again why, at the same time, it's like it's a simple word, but it just it's like all books, i feel like when you take into account what it's saying and imagine it and make it relatable to yourself, and sometimes I think that's what we're missing when we're looking at the Bible.
Speaker 1:One of the best things that you're supposed to learn when you're going to school is making connections text to self, text to text, text to world. You know, making a connection and making it relatable to yourself, because that's a better way to understand something and it's a better way to not forget something. So I'm making this text to self and I'm imagining myself in the situation. I'm asking myself what would I do if I was in the situation? what kind of thoughts would come up? where would I be if I didn't have God. And yet I do.
Speaker 1:And so I read this with new understanding that sometimes God's path may lead through the sea, that His way leads through the mighty waters, though His footprints were not seen. If I were those, those Israelites, if I was Moses coming up to that sea, i would not have any idea of how God would get us from one place to another. I wouldn't have any idea how we would make it through that ocean. And yet that's kind of what this verse is saying. It doesn't have to be an ocean, it doesn't have to be waters, it doesn't have to be physical waters. We could say it's a tumultuous, you know problem, like we're coming up to a big challenge. We're coming up to big something that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:I find it unreasonable to be in this place. I find it illogical to be here. I find it to make like the least sense out of all the other options. God, why would you bring me here, god? why would you put me here, god? why would you do this? and yet that last part fill? your footprints were not seen, and it's like a simple thought.
Speaker 1:But I feel like when we make that connection, it just I don't know, maybe I'm, i don't know it. Just, it just feels different when I take myself and I imagine myself standing there at those waters, heat coming down, because they're in the middle of it, like I don't know, like they're in the middle of planes, i'm imagining, and there's all these people looking at me and they're expecting me to get them out of something, they're expecting me to help them and I'm like, seriously, you're not only Matt. Do I have to deal with the Egyptians that are probably gonna come kill me now? I have to deal with the anger of the very people who followed me here, who believed that I would lead them out of here and somehow, or some way or another, and yet I have no one else to turn to but you and to take this connection to myself, i I think of all the things that God has talked to me about. I think of all the promises, of the dreams, the memories, the ideas, the beliefs that I carry along with me, and all my hopes and wants and desires.
Speaker 1:And I'm I'm walking with them and I've come up to this ocean and and they're looking at me like you gave up, like there's no way, like we've failed, and yet God is there with me and he's making a path that I have not seen. He has led me to a water that doesn't seem logical, that doesn't seem reasonable, that doesn't seem to make any sense whatsoever. And though I cannot see them yet, his footprints are already there. His path is already there, just covered by what I believe to be the impossible, but by what I believe to be an ocean that's immovable, that doesn't have any retainable shape other than its container.
Speaker 1:In this case, the container would be, you know, the world, that I cannot physically move enough of this water to get me and my dreams and my hopes and my visions and and my wants and desires through this, that I cannot get to where I feel that God is leading me to go, to, what all the things that I've, i've desired, like security, not, you know, to be rich, but to be financially secure, to have a healthy life, to have a family, that all those things. And I have all these desires and dreams, and it's me, and I've I've been going through my life, you know, with God by my side, and I'm like God, i'm a fall, your lead, and he's so far given me a fire, tornado, because that's the thing. And he's given me a cloud to shield me from the unbearable Sun, because that's what the, you know, the Israelites had. And I've come up to this ocean and all my hopes and dreams and desires are like hey, did you give up on us? like this is impossible. And I'm imagining them being there with me and he's just being like God, do something. I know that you have something planned, Just do something. And waiting on God.
Speaker 1:As those Egyptians get closer and closer, as the physical, biological deadlines to the end of my dreams gets closer and closer, as you know, time, the pressure of time, starts to press and press and press more and more on us, as the pressure of finances starts to press more and more and more on us, threatening to push us either into the ocean to our death, or threatening to overwhelm us and kill us in and of themselves. And that's what I'm imagining a metaphor for our lives, a metaphor for where we're at right now. And when I make those connections, i'm more capable of understanding what it was like to be those Egyptians, what it was like to be in that situation, what I should be doing, how to listen to this word And and I begin to realize wow, this verse is powerful that though, you know, all these things are coming up against me, that I know that, this fear, this challenge, that I've come up to this ocean, that I've seen the waters. Now see God. The waters have seen him and are writhing. The very depths are convulsed. Every part of that ocean is is writhing, is moving. That the clouds are pouring down water, the heavens are sounding with thunder, his arrows flashing back and forth, the thunder was heard in the whirlwind, his lightning lit up the world, the earth trembled and claked, and that his path led through this sea, through this challenge, his way made through the mighty waters, though his footprints were not seen. And it gives me hope, and it gives me joy by receiving and understanding it, by making that connection, i am able to say you know what I feel the pressure of time.
Speaker 1:I feel the pressure of health, i feel the pressure of finances, i feel the pressure of you know what's the word? It's, it's like peer pressure, giving in, i guess, to society. I feel the pressure of being, or, you know, physical needs like food, water, a house over my head or, sorry, a roof over my head. And I feel all those things And I realize that, just like the Egyptian No, sorry Just like the Israelites, waiting and being pressed between two impossibilities The impossibilities of the Egyptians showing up and being wow hi, oh, sorry, we see that you're stuck here, let us just We'll just give you more time while you figure that out And the impossibility of that ocean that they had right before them, that they knew they could not physically cross, with all those things that they had brought with them, all those hopes, those dreams, those desires, those hopes, those things that they felt they were promised to be delivered from the Egyptians Right For me to be delivered from, you know, death, i don't know.
Speaker 1:Just that we each have all of our own pressures that are pressuring, that are coming upon us, whether it be time, you know, life, health, finances, food, social pressure, pressure from our job, that there is all those pressures that could be our metaphorical Egyptians chasing after us. And then we have this challenge in front of us. That could be we don't have enough money, we don't have enough time, we don't have enough life. We've seen impossibility that we can't possibly get through And we have to lean on God. But we realize that, though we do not see it yet, that his footprints are already there, his path has already been made because he has walked this before us. He has already planned this out before we even got here. He has already thought all this out before we were even created in our mother's womb. That he had loved and known us and consecrated us, that he had prepared us for this purpose, that he had prepared us for this moment. That, despite all the pressures that might seem overwhelming, that might seem impossible to deal with, that, even in the midst of that, that it no matter what fear or impossibility, that those fears and impossibilities writhe and convulse in the presence of God, that, no matter how impossible something might seem, that God is with us, preparing us and guiding us, and that, when it comes to the point of he will split waters, he will break apart challenges, he will utilize challenges that should have taken us and instead deliver us through it, and they will allow us to find passage to something else, to a promised land, as long as we trust in him and have respect for him. Because we know in this sad story of those Israelites, they lost respect for God instead of worshiping other gods and in doing so they ended up making a short travel into a very long, 40-year travel. But anyway, that's it for today.
Speaker 1:I just I don't know. I really like that verse, the 19,. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. And then I just, i just really had to read the other part. It was just, it just sounds so beautiful, and I love Psalms for that, because they are just very like creative, the very poetic in a way. Anyway, as always, let's go ahead and end the prayer.
Speaker 1:Dear God, first off, thank you for your presence, thank you for your guidance. I know that you take our hand and you guide us through all of these things and I thank you for that. I thank you for the safety, for the capability to worship you, for the capability to be free to love you, for forgiving us of our sins. Lord, let I pray that you just continue to open our eyes to the path that you've led before us, to help us to keep that trust, to give us a desire and a passion for your word, because I know that when I keep your heart in my word, sorry, when I keep your word in my heart, that that keeps me from sin, lord, that that keeps me from veering off the path you have set before me, that narrow is the path, lord, that I need your help. Lord, keep me focused, keep me centered on you. Let me continue to make you the thing that I worship you, the thing that I love you, the priority in my life, trusting that whenever, lord, i am seeking first your kingdom and seeking first your righteousness, lord, that all things will be given to me as well, i just pray that you forgive us of our sins. Let us not into temptation. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this week's episode of HFC. I just want to add that last bit in the prayer was actually from the Daily Verse Matthew 633. It says but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So just know that you know whoever's struggling or having some trouble right now freaking out about those impossibilities, that God is watching out for you, because that was literally today's verse Just perfect, perfect. Anyway, thanks, have a great God last week. Bye.