Keep Going

I wasn’t going to write this week.

Truly, I wasn’t.

And how ironic would that be? Because this week’s message is to keep going . . . and here I was about to stop.

Why was I going to stop? The very same reasons anybody stops anything. Pain. Worry. Fear. Burn Out. Fatigue.

Sunday, Pastor Doug preached from the book of Exodus, most notable for the mass exodus (for which it was named) of God’s people out of Egypt.

But what if they stopped?

What if the Red Sea closed on them too?

Or worse yet, what if they never made it to its shore?

What if they never even made it out of Egypt?

All because they stopped

Praying

Believing

Walking

Fill in the blank.

When we stop—for whatever reason we do—we pause God’s plans for us.

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’” declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

-Jeremiah 29:11

The Israelites lost sight of those plans, pushed aside their faith. In the desert and with the Egyptians in close pursuit, they cried out to Moses, “What have you done?” (Exodus 14:10-11)

Fear overtook their faith. “It would have been better to remain in captivity, to serve the Egyptians."  (Exodus 14:12)

I watched a video earlier this week that described those thoughts above as “decorating one’s cage.”

Let me explain. When freedom is unfamiliar, it can feel dangerous. It can make the cage feel comfortable. When faced with the unknown, it’s imperative we don’t confuse familiarity with peace, with purpose. If we settle for predictable pain solely because it feels safer than unknown healing, we forfeit God’s plans for us. And remember those plans we talked about? They’re good plans.

So bring your pain! God can use that. But He can’t assign a purpose to the pain if you quit.

Keep going.

This is a hard truth, but a necessary one:

Your life requires your participation.

God will open doors . . . but it’s still up to you to walk through them.

God can part seas . . . but it’s still up to you to cross them.

God doesn’t change. (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17)

That means if He did it before, He can do it again.

And He wants to. (Numbers 6:24-26, Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 1:3, Philippians 4:19, James 1:17)

But friends, we have to keep going.

I have to keep going.

You have to keep going.

God has more for us, and He’s given us dry ground.

It’s on us now . . . Are we going to walk on it?