Have you become discouraged with what God is doing through a difficult situation in your life? You’ve seen Him working in the past and how He pulled you through, but you don’t know if (and how) He will ever get you through this circumstance. It looks impossible. It feels improbable. But God is capable.
There is a passage in Joshua that seems fitting to mention here. Joshua and the Israelites went to cross the Jordan river (as the Lord had instructed) but the river was at flood stage. Just think of a river you’ve seen flowing rapidly, let alone at flood stage. It’s scary!
It took incredible faith for them to begin to enter and embark walking across the river to the other side. Once they took a small step of faith, the river dried up, allowing them to pass. It’s crazy to imagine the ground wasn’t mud or wet dirt, but dry to the touch! The river didn’t only dry up right around them, but God divinely planned this to occur at that exact moment, as He already blocked the river upstream about 30 miles from where they stood in advance. How incredible!
Joshua 3:15-16
Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off.
Once they reached the other side, Joshua instructed one man from each tribe to take a stone and stack them on each other. This was done as a memorial to display to all who saw it what God had done, and the power in which He alone possesses. What in your life do you need to look to God and take a step of faith in order for Him to show you just how powerful He can be?
Joshua 4:5-7
Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.
Growing up our family had been through many traumatic seasons, some of which included suddenly losing my father at a young age, my mom being diagnosed with severe chronic nerve pain (and still deals with it to this day), my sister enduring a major back surgery at the age of 16 (causing her to be paralyzed and learn how to walk again), friends that rejected me without any explanation, and wondering how God would provide financially through only my mom’s income. These were just a few of the many areas, but even through the difficulties we could see how God was providing and working. These trials brought longer lasting purpose than the perfectly-planned life we thought we desired.
My mom taught us from an early age to remember how God had provided for us. As a family we would take stones and write on them how we had seen God work in our lives. It didn’t take us long to fill up a whole bowl full of stones displaying how God had worked through the most tragic of times. My mom still has the bowl on her coffee table as a remembrance.
Take a few moments and ponder or write down 12 ways that you’ve seen how God provided and worked through a season that brought you heartache. Something you never thought you’d get through, but He provided a way out. Maybe even a better way than what you were aware of at the time. I’ll list out the twelve areas that I have experienced God working in my life.
- God’s faithfulness to me through every changing season
- The deep loss that led me to my need for salvation
- God’s provision when funds were uncertain
- The miracle of the impossible being achievable
- Protection from what I thought I wanted
- God’s unchanging love when every friend left my side
- The rescue when I felt defenseless
- When God made a way through the desolate desert
- The prolonged waiting, leading to far greater blessing
- The agonizing grief that I can use to help identify with others
- My circumstances left unchanged, but I had a renewed perspective
- The suffering in this world that gives me hope for eternity in heaven
There’s a song that I’ve been listening to recently, actually it’s the inspiration for my post. It is a reminder to me of all that God has done in the past, and the ways He is still just as powerful today. He’s helped me through each trial, hard day and dark season in the past and has continued to pull me through (sometimes more broken) but hopefully more equipped for my eternal home. I hope you can listen to it and recall how God has pulled you through those dark times you never thought you’d get through. How you’ve seen miracles performed that others said would not be possible, but through them God displayed His majesty more powerfully.