In the Middle
Who else feels like they’re in the “In between” season? Like you’re out of your Exodus, but The Promised Land seems so far. I know I do! And I believe that this is how the Israelites felt too. They had finally escaped from Egyptian slavery when God used Moses to part the Red Sea as their escape in Exodus 14. God in His faithfulness heard the cry of His people, who were in bondage to Egypt and He raised Moses up as their human deliverer -by God’s power of course. The Lord had shown Himself as Great Defender, by sending plagues and curses upon the people who’d oppressed HIS people, until Pharaoh -the Egyptian king, let God’s people go. Pharaoh eventually did release the Israelites to go free from slavery. But like our enemy, Satan; Pharaoh and his army still chased behind God’s people. However, our Mighty God, parted the Red Sea and created dry ground for his people to run across. But when the opposer attempted to go after the Israelites, The Lord released the waters to drown and overtake them. See, the ground that God’s children walked right through, was the ground that the enemy drowned on!! Now THAT is worth rejoicing!!
And Israel did rejoice for a while, but the excitement about their miraculous deliverance soon wore off. Though they were one step closer to the land that The Lord had promised them, they still had a long way to go. They found themselves in between. And who can agree that the in between is often scary and uncomfortable? For God’s people, it was so uncomfortable that they began complaining and wanting to go back to the very place God had delivered them from. In Numbers 14:1-4, they’d become consumed with doubt and fear. The God that they had personally known to be Deliverer, Provider, Sustainer, Protecter, Defender, Faithful & Compassionate; they now accused of being a forsaking God, all because they were in an unfamiliar position. Numbers 14:4 reads, “Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
WHAT??! Okay now that insanity!
But if we are being honest, we’ve been exactly like the Israelites. How many times has God delivered us from sin, a relationship, addiction or circumstance; and when the journey got scary and unfamiliar, we desired to return to the very thing God delivered us from? We start to look back and fall into the deception that our past days were so much better. That’s a lie from the pit of hell because the Word says we go from glory to glory. The former days are not our glory days; they are our familiar days. Our former days were not our best days; they were our comfortable days. It is in the middle, that the enemy will try to convince you to go back. But press forward sis, because this life, this journey with God is a lifelong process and there is BETTER AHEAD!! It’s a beautiful, terrifying, uncomfortable, rewarding, slow, fruitful, painful, worthwhile process ALL IN ONE! And that’s okay!!
Nonetheless, we MUST be like Paul in Philippians 3:14 and “Press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. “
Philippians 3:16 goes on to say, “Hold on to the progress we have already made.”
I don’t know about you, but that’s such an encouraging reminder for me. Especially when I “sin and fall short of God’s glory.” Or the times I feel like I have either backtracked, arrived at uncertainty or remained at a standstill. We can remember where we were prior to knowing & accepting Jesus Christ; which was our place of Egypt, bound to sin. And we can look at where we are now; no longer slaves of sin, but covered in grace, forgiven and on our way to The Promised Land. Freedom doesn’t always feel like freedom when we are in an unfamiliar, “in between” place; but certainly we are closer than we think if we don’t turn back. We need God’s power to persevere and guide us. Other times we will have to press our way through, praise our way through, pray our way through, cling to the everlasting Word of God & God Himself! As we do, our lifestyle and identity will come into alignment with our freedom!!
After their deliverance from Egypt; the Israelites wandered for Forty years to get to The Promised Land!! A trip that was supposed to only take them Eleven days took Forty years because of their lack of trust in God. Let’s learn from our brothers and sisters from the Old Testament and resolve to trust God in the middle and press toward the mark -even if that means falling and getting back up again! Let’s learn through it, be vulnerable through it, praise through it & GET THROUGH IT -all with The Lord by our side!! What is ahead of us is too great to revert to the old. We are taking hold of the new thing that God is doing. And I am confident what when we reach our Promised Land, we will be glad that we endured through our uneasy, middle season!! It is worth it & so are you!!
Let’s Pray:
Dear Almighty God, thank You for Your saving grace and righteous right hand. Thank you for sustaining us this far. As we find ourselves in the uncertainty of the middle; guide us, Lord. Help our uncomfortableness lead us to depend totally on You -The Comforter. Keep us from going back to things & people You have delivered us from. And forgive us for the times we’ve been deceived into thinking the past was better than our future. Help us to trust You so that we don’t have to wander longer than You intended. Show us glimpses of our Promised Land along the way so that we can be encouraged to persevere through any hard seasons. We take hold of Your grace and we give ourselves grace. When we fall, we WILL get back up because it will be Your hand in which we will take hold of. We thank You Lord for the process that will result in victory! Help us to learn what we can from You along the way. We thank You, love You and honor You O God, Our God!!
In Jesus’s name, amen.
