God Will Make a Way
I’ve had generalized anxiety and panic attacks for more than 15 years now. Most days you wouldn’t be able to tell that I’m a person who struggles with anxiety but sometimes it can be overwhelming. All of the anxious fears pile on until I feel like I am surrounded – like I am suffocating and there is no way out, at least no way that I can see or imagine.
Sometimes in moments of heavy anxiety I try to imagine that I am an Israelite standing at the Red Sea. I have faithfully left the only land I have ever known. All of my family members and my belongings are loaded up and we are doing something unthinkable – walking with hundreds of thousands of people to a new land. Maybe the life they go to next in the new land will be better or maybe it will be worse. But for now they remain hopeful.
That’s exactly where the Israelites find themselves in Exodus 14. They have started their journey out of Egypt and are camping next to the Red Sea. Pharaoh has decided that he made a grave mistake letting the Israelites go and has sent his army marching toward them to bring them back.
Exodus 14:10-14
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Isn't this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
That last line is so easy and so impossibly hard – “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
The enemy is coming, the anxiety is building and you are physically trapped by a sea. There is nothing you can do. There is nothing the Israelites can do but scream and God tells them to not even do that. They think they are surely about to die because their playbook of options to save the day doesn’t even come close to imagining what will happen next.
As the enemy closes in, the Red Sea parts and dry land appears. They escape and the Egyptians that were pursuing them all drown.
Only in God’s playbook does a crazy miracle like the parting of the Red Sea happen. Just in the nick of time – or rather exactly in God’s time.
When my anxiety rises and I close my eyes and imagine myself by the Red Sea, I try with all the strength I can muster to take a deep breath and remember that the Lord will fight for me and all I have to do is be silent. Be silent. There is so much trust in that silence. The enemy may be closing in today, whether that enemy is anxiety or busyness or fear or worry. Things may feel out of control, the situation may truly be dire. But may I encourage you to remember God’s words to the Israelites here. You are not the one doing the fighting. Save your energy and be silent.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Be prayerful, seek His guidance, and surrender your situation. Surrender your fears, surrender your anxieties, and choose trust. You might see something happen that you never could have dreamt of. You might just see a miracle.
