Faith: Greener On The Other Side

I have been thinking a lot lately about life and certain situations that seem impossible to survive. When you are going through a difficult situation, it doesn’t seem as though you will ever get through it in one piece. But if you have faith in God, anything is possible. It just isn’t possible to imagine what the outcome will be because God’s plan is so much greater than anything we could come up with. So, I’ve been thinking lately about different stories in the Bible where that character may have been thinking, “How in the world am I ever going to survive?” Now that the situation is ended and I can see the outcome, I am amazed at the potential we have in our own situations to see God’s awesome, unimaginable plan carried out. For instance, take Moses and the Israelites. They were trying to escape Egypt. Pharaoh and his army were chasing after them with chariots and the most sophisticated instruments for their time I’m sure, while the Israelites were carrying all their belongings and animals, plus they had all the children who I’m sure were not moving very fast. Then the Israelites come to the Red Sea. If I were Moses, I would be thinking, “This is an impossible situation. How are we going to survive this?” But God had a wonderful plan for the Israelites. Do you think any of them could have ever imagined God parting the Red Sea so they could walk across it and then closing it up on top of the Egyptians? I know I wouldn’t have thought of that. What about David? The odds of a small boy with a sling shot defeating a 9 feet tall giant named Goliath are pretty slim. But once again God had a plan for David that was greater than you could possibly imagine. How about Esther? Her people were about to be destroyed by the man second in command to the King. So she goes to the king without an invitation, which is a crime punishable by death, and talks to him. She later got up the nerve to tell the King about the plot to kill her people. The King saved her people and banished the man who had plotted to kill her. What do all these and many more stories from the Bible demonstrate to us? That as the Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11, God does have a plan for us with a hope and a future. When we are in the valley of a situation in life and can’t see the way out, God has a plan more wonderful than we could ever come up with on our own. We must “trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him and He will make our paths straight.” So, if you are facing this new year with 2004 being less than you had hoped, have no fear. The year 2005 might be the year that you reach the other side of the mountain to see the wonderful plan God has for your life. Then once you reach the other side, you will see how God has been faithful to you. And you will know for sure that “all things really do work to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” So the next time your at the bottom of the mountain and don’t think there is any way you are ever going to climb this Mount Everest, remember that with God in control, you will make it up the steep incline and soon you will see that the grass is always greener on the other side. It may even be the most spectacular view you have ever seen in your whole life, but you have to keep climbing in order to find out. God doesn’t promise us a pain free life, but He does promise us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He won’t leave you hanging. He will carry you all the way up if necessary, as long as you put your trust in Him.