I am sure the children of Israel had no doubt that God is great and mighty and nothing is impossible with God. They had seen how God worked the ten plagues to bring them out of Egypt. They had seen the parting of the Red Sea, a miracle which happened just days before they came to Marah. When we read this story, we wondered why they never thought that the God who parted the Red Sea and delivered them from Pharaoh would certainly never leave them to die in the wilderness.
You see, the children of Israel grew up in the harsh environment of Egypt as slaves. They have learned to endure all sort of hardships to survive. They have never experienced what is the love of a King and the provision of a Master. So when they could not find water, they had difficulty believing that God would provide the water. They only knew that their hopeless situation of facing death from lack of water was worse than the hardship in Egypt.
Very often, we are like that. We are living in a fallen world. We have to work hard to earn a living. We grew up knowing that we have to work hard to get the things we want. Sometimes, we fail and we have to work even harder. Our minds can only understand that we need to solve our own problem. When we received our LORD Jesus as our Saviour, we were told that our Heavenly Father loves us, He is sovereign, He is almighty. Then, when painful and difficult situations happened, the first thing our mind could think of is — LORD God, where are you? Why aren’t You helping me? Why even the last hope is smashed? Why did You bring me into this hopeless situation? The next thing our mind can think of is — get up — solve our own problem — God is almighty but for some reasons He is not providing and helping this time. We became bitter and angry with God as we struggled to get out of our difficult and painful situation.
My friend, I want to tell you that our human minds have difficulty believing that God is with us and that He will help us when we pray. Yet, the only way to overcome our difficulty in this fallen world is FAITH. Yes, FAITH. Faith is believing not just that God can but that God’s will is to help us out of our difficult situation, to bless us, to give us our heart’s desire. Faith is believing that when we turn to God, He hears us.
When we read the stories of Jesus healing the sick, it was by faith that the people got healed. Let me quote the conversation between Jesus and a gentile woman :
“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed. (Matthew 15:28 – New Living Translation)
The following are the words and teachings from our LORD God, Jesus :
“Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. ” Matthew 21:21 (New Living Translation)
You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” Matthew 21:22 (New Living Translation)
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 ( New Living Translation)
The bible says God’s words will never return to Him void. So if the above are the words spoken from our LORD Jesus, can you see that the secret to overcome your problem is FAITH?
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11 (New American Standard Bible)
My friend, God is not behind your problem. He did not bring those difficulties into your life. God is a good God, He loves you. However we are living in a fallen world and the secret to unlocking the power and provision of God is simply FAITH — believing that God loves you and His will is to bless you.
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 (New International Version)
God’s words say that He will graciously give us all things. Yes! Graciously means even when we don’t deserve it. Did you see —it’s ALL things. Not just some. ALL!
