I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
– Jude 1:5
Has the Lord ever performed a miracle in your life? I am sure that He has! In fact, I am certain of it! He moves us through the seeming impossibles of life so often that we become complacent and, unbelievably, we begin to feel entitled and think ourselves deserving of deliverance from every obstacle or hardship of life! Let Him leave us in hardship or strife and we will, more often than not, be found complaining about how we deserve better, how life is not fair, how God is not listening to us, and on and on!
Admit it, you have done it! I know I have, even as a born again believer of Jesus Christ, I have caught myself whining and moaning about my circumstances or the outcome of something because it was not what I wanted or thought should happen! Just like the Israelites who God led out of bondage from Egypt to freedom forgot His miracle working power on their way to the promised land we too have a nagging, raging at times, propensity to forget who the Lord God Almighty is with His perfect timing, purpose, ways, and means!
They witnessed miracle after miracle, some of which were larger than any we have ever seen, like the parting of the Red Sea or the Manna from Heaven. Those miracles were, however, are of no less might and wonder than the ones God performs for us all the time! There was a time when my husband and I, who were raising my two young daughters at the time, had an income of only $650 a month and our rent alone was $1100, yet we never missed a month of paying the rent, and it was always paid on time in full along with all of our other bills. How? It’s a miracle if you ask me! There was also that time when we chose to be homeless and drive from Florida to Oregon to live- without knowing a soul out there, having no plan, and with extraordinarily little money. We camped in a tent, for free, beside the Winchuck river in Brookings, Oregon for two weeks in March: it rained almost the entire time and the temperature hovered just over freezing. We had no cell phone service at the campsite, but we would drive into the little town for supplies every few days. One day when we went into town to get the oil changed on our car, I decided I would use the time waiting to our advantage by looking for a job. I found an available position in my field of work and began filling out the application. Before I was even halfway done with the application, however, my phone rang, and it was the recruiter from that very job. I asked him how he got my information because I had not submitted anything yet and he said, “I don’t know, it just showed up!” He hired me on the spot! If he had called later, I would not have gotten his message for several days and the job-hunting process would have continued to add stress to our already stressful situation.
These are but two small, yet life changing, miracles the Lord has performed for me out of His love and mercy! There are so very many more and I am positive that there are even more that I will not know anything of until I see Him in glory! I thank God for bringing to my remembrance today the times He has mercifully delivered me from trouble to safety; from sickness to health; and, most importantly, how He brought me from death to life through His Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
God Almighty delivered the Israelites out of the world (Egypt) and gave them every opportunity and reason to believe on and have faith in Him through their witnessing of His power, glory, might, mercy, truth, and majesty- His saving grace- as they wondered in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. Having revealed so much of Himself to them; He truly left them without excuse who refused to believe on Him and, as a result, was justified in destroying them for their faithless unbelief.
Those of us who refuse to believe, who quickly lose faith in the Lord, will end up not being obedient to Him and will continue to wonder in the wilderness until time is up and eternity arrives. Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). I pray we continue to diligently seek Him every morning, every day, and we continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; Never forgetting the many times that God has delivered us through His miracle working power so that unlike those unbelieving, complaining, complacent Israelites God saved from Egypt we will be welcomed into the promised land of eternal life in Heaven with Him.
As You Rise 