“I’ll fight for you!”

During my week in Léon, I was feeling stuck. I wanted to blog about something but I didn’t feel extremely led or driven to anything in particular. But God had been doing something, and now I see. In the last couple weeks He has really been placing a lot of scripture on my heart of what it means just to belong in His kingdom, His family, His presence. Here is one verse that God has really been pressing into my heart and has been revealing more and more to me through it every time I read.
 
Exodus 14:14
            “The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” 
 
Sometimes, if not on some level, everyday of our lives we lose our patience. Whether it be with something small, like waiting in line for our order at a fast food restaurant, or something bigger, like waiting for test results that could change the course of your entire life, we are waiting. Waiting for the Lord to show himself, to be present, to fight. But we become so impatient and so agitated because we want things to happen in our plan, and in our way. But that’s not how God works. His plan is divine, and His ways are for our good, whether we realize it or not.
 
This passage in Exodus is in reference to when the Israelite slaves are fleeing Egypt from Pharaoh, the Israelites could not see how it could be God’s plan for them to run, when Pharaoh was chasing them down.
 
 
But scripture clearly says, “The Lord hardened the heart, and he will chase after you. I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army.” Exodus 14:8
 
Sometimes it’s hard to see or understand what God’s plan is when we are in the thick of it. We are so clouded by our own emotions and situational junk that we can’t understand what God is doing. But that does not mean He isn’t in control or doesn’t have a plan. We even cry out in fear and plead for God to stop and just let us be, just as the Israelites pleaded with Moses to go back to Egypt and sacrifice their freedom just so that they would not be subject to the wrath of Pharaoh. But like so many times in life, they underestimated what God had in stored. God’s plan was to save the slaves and bring them into freedom.
 
All God wants to do with us, is bring us into more and more freedom if we just let Him into our lives. Controlling every situation is beyond our control no matter how much you try. You may end up with hundreds of Nicaraguans worshipping in your house with music that shakes the bed and echos with the sound of a mega sound system for 12 hours straight, or getting no sleep because of that. But God’s plans are far greater than my own, despite my annoyance, God is working in the hearts of hundreds of Nicaraguans, and even in the hearts of my squad, whether or not we realize it or not.