Three Days Thirsty
“How do you trust the Lord when you are 3 days thirsty?” That’s what I kept thinking this morning. I was reading Exodus 15:22-17:7.
The 3 miracles God did to grow/coach people’s faith inside their need seem to be this.
1. God can provide by making the bitter sweet.
2. God can provide from creative, supernatural, unexpected ways(...and in that, he may pace it to build deeper faith)
3. God can provide out of what’s hidden under the surface. It may take breaking.
The point? It’s not the means. It’s the Provider and His way.
It’s not just trusting God’s in the move but also in the need. Faith must grow in both places. He provides in location and need. God’s focus doesn’t begin or end with provision but coaching a heart toward faith in the Provider. And to do this, it may take 3 days thirsty.
As an aside, in my mind’s imagination, I tend to picture Moses (with the bitter water and bitter people) exasperated crying out to God and God directing his attention to what’s right beside him. Maybe He had the wood magically appear. But I like to think it was right beside him and God just made him settle down & see the creative connection in his midst and make it useful.
And with the rock, it’s not lost on me that Jesus, the cornerstone, was broken once and now spoken to, to lead us to living water.
In pain/need, people struggling in faith tend to get too unrealistically nostalgic, become forgetful (of how God’s eye is on them & provided in the past), get mad at leadership or with those trying to seek God & project motives, and grumble, grumble, grumble seeing NO way forward but only a broad road backward. God’s response? God is still faithful. He found ways to keep strengthening their faith to see Him as provider and keep them moving. The story wasn’t over.
He tested them to reveal their hearts, grow their faith, and provide in a 1000 ways to keep them moving further and deeper. Eventually some dug in to their own way for too long and missed what He had for them. But some grew bit by bit and embraced the heart of the God of promise and saw the impossible. They responded to need with faith in Him.