By Faith Not Sight: The Secret to Stability in Trials
“And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not” Exodus 17: 7?
This passage tells the familiar story of the Israelites grumbling against Moses for lack of water in the wilderness. And God’s miraculous provision of water from a rock. But I want to focus on the question they posed at the end of the verse. Is the Lord among us or not?
To read the passage for context, click here.
Learning to Walk by Faith Not Sight
When we are in the desert, an impossible situation, that seems to contradict God’s promise to us, it looks and feels as though God is not with us.
But that’s the whole point of the trial. It’s to teach us to walk by faith and not sight (2 Corinthians 5: 7). To help us to continue to believe God’s word, despite how things look, or how we feel.
And because God loves us just that much, we will continue in our wilderness experience until we know God is with us in spite of what appears to be contradictory evidence.
James 1: 6-8 tells us that “the one who doubts [that God is with him in his trials] is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways”.
Doubt will Make Us Unstable
If we doubt God is with us in our wilderness experience, we will be driven and tossed by the wind of our difficult circumstances. Our double-mindedness- believing God’s word when our situation lines up with it and doubting when it doesn’t – will make us unstable.
Our behavior will reflect our circumstances rather than our faith. Not unlike the Israelites who died in the wilderness (Numbers 14: 29-33).
To read another post related to By Faith Not Sight: The Secret to Stability In Trials, see The Love of God: The Secret to Stability.