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Your Daily Bible Verse - Why Does God Move So Slowly? (Exodus 14:21) · GodLife On Demand

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your daily Bible verse.
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  Speaker 1: The podcast that examines one verse each day to learn
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  Speaker 1: more about God and His will for our lives. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one
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  Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's
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  Speaker 1: verse can be found in Exodus chapter 14, verse 21.
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  Speaker 1: Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and
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  Speaker 1: all that night the Lord drove the sea back with
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  Speaker 1: a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
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  Speaker 1: The waters were divided. The other day, I got annoyed
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  Speaker 1: at Amazon. I had ordered something to be delivered to
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  Speaker 1: the house, but on the day that it was to arrive,
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  Speaker 1: there was a message saying that the delivery was delayed.
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  Speaker 2: Did you know I had to wait a whole weekend
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  Speaker 2: before I got my parcel? How rude. How often does
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  Speaker 2: this happen to us? If we don't receive the things
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  Speaker 2: that we desire or search for as quickly or as
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  Speaker 2: efficiently as we deem appropriate, then we can grow quite sour,
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  Speaker 2: can't we? I know that if I go to the
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  Speaker 2: grocery store and the specific type of mushroom or leafy
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  Speaker 2: green is not in stock, well then my whole day
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  Speaker 2: can just feel wasted. We live in a world of
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  Speaker 2: instant gratification. Overnight shipping, 24-hour fitness centers, skip-the-dishes-and-door-dash, More and more,
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  Speaker 2: the world is not just at our fingertips, but it
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  Speaker 2: is instantaneously at our fingertips. So how often do we
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  Speaker 2: translate this attitude to our life with God, believing that
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  Speaker 2: the redemptive activity of God must be experienced right away?
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  Speaker 2: And we might not even know that we think this
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  Speaker 2: way until something happens in our life and we immediately
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  Speaker 2: believe that God has abandoned us or neglected us. Or
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  Speaker 2: maybe God is punishing us. I've grown to adore the
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  Speaker 2: book of Exodus. Because the entire book is rooted in
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  Speaker 2: a radical sense of patience. When we think of the
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  Speaker 2: iconic scene of Israel crossing the Red Sea, it's easy
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  Speaker 2: to have Charlton Heston or Disney animation running through our minds.
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  Speaker 2: In these adaptations, the crossing of the Red Sea only
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  Speaker 2: takes a few moments. Moses prays, God acts, and in
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  Speaker 2: ten minutes the Israelites are on the other side of
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  Speaker 2: the sea, walking in liberation and freedom. But notice that
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  Speaker 2: in Scripture, the parting of the sea took a while.
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  Speaker 2: Scripture says that Moses stood there with arms raised all night.
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  Speaker 2: And it was only in the last watch of the
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  Speaker 2: night that Israel got to begin walking on dry land.
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  Speaker 2: The last watch of the night begins roughly around 3 a.m.,
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  Speaker 2: and so standing with his hands raised in the air
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  Speaker 2: is a symbol of prayer, a prayer that Moses prayed
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  Speaker 2: all night long. Moses stood praying to the Lord for hours. Now,
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  Speaker 2: it didn't have to be this way. Surely God could
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  Speaker 2: have parted the Red Sea in no time flat, or
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  Speaker 2: simply removed the sea altogether. But God worked slowly. so
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  Speaker 2: that Israel could grow in their capacity for faith and trust.
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  Speaker 2: The lengthy parting of the Red Sea helped Israel learn
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  Speaker 2: that even when they were afraid, even when they didn't
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  Speaker 2: know what to do or where to go, they could
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  Speaker 2: trust that God would be with them and save them.
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  Speaker 2: After Israel crossed the sea, Exodus 14 states that when
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  Speaker 2: the Israelites saw the great power of the Lord displayed
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  Speaker 2: against the Egyptians, they stood there awestruck, and they put
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  Speaker 2: their trust in God and in Moses. You know, centuries later,
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  Speaker 2: Peter wrote, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises,
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  Speaker 2: as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you,
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  Speaker 2: not wanting anyone to perish, but to come to repentance.
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  Speaker 2: It is the slowness of God's work that becomes the
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  Speaker 2: fodder for spiritual growth and resilience. God's slowness doesn't mean
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  Speaker 2: that God is not doing anything. It actually means that
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  Speaker 2: God is inviting us to fully enter the reality of
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  Speaker 2: God's saving act. Are we open to the long and
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  Speaker 2: drawn-out work of God in our lives? Or are we
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  Speaker 2: too busy looking for the flashy, instantaneous miracles that And
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  Speaker 2: if we do that, we might miss the way that
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  Speaker 2: the Spirit sustains us, provides for us, protects us, and
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  Speaker 2: guides us. So what might it look like to lean
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  Speaker 2: into the slow movement of God, daring to trust that
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  Speaker 2: God's saving power would be revealed and that our next
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  Speaker 2: steps would be shown? The life of faith doesn't run
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  Speaker 2: on the course of instant gratification. God often leads us
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  Speaker 2: to places where we might rather not go, and places
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  Speaker 2: us in situations which are so far beyond our control
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  Speaker 2: that it becomes clear that we need God's help. Faithfulness
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  Speaker 2: in the Christian life, therefore, is not about getting what
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  Speaker 2: we want when we want it, but it is about
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  Speaker 2: looking to the Lord when we feel stretched beyond our
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  Speaker 2: abilities and daring to trust that God is at work.