Confronting Your Own Red Seas (Part 3) “Understanding God in a Deeper Way”
In my past two blogs we have been exploring why God sometimes leads us the Red Sea route, instead of the quick and easy route. Google Maps always gives you the quickest route. Google Maps showed that Israel could be in their new land in 40 days. So why did God take them through the trauma of the Red Sea route and the wilderness?
I remember when I became the pastor in Daytona, we were left with about 200 people and 3.5 million dollars of debt (over 7 million in today’s dollars). Our monthly mortgage payment was $21,000! As a young 27 year old, I wanted God to do something miraculous and lay a huge gift on us that would pay off all the debt immediately. That never happened. God took us the long route, which involved reaching people, seeing the church grow, watching people grow in their faith, witnessing the church family come together, and seeing common everyday people give generously week after week.
Eight and a half years later we saw that debt disappear! I look back now and I’m so glad that God did not take us the quick and easy route. But why?
The Red Sea route can protect us from destruction.
I look back and it is clear to me now that one of the worst things that could have ever happened to us would have been for one wealthy person to pay all our debt off. I believe it would have spelled doom and destruction for our church. We needed the Red Sea route!
The Red Sea route can create great opportunities.
Because of the debt load, we learned so much about teamwork, developing volunteers, stewardship, generosity, sacrifice, outreach, follow up, and on and on I could go. The Red Sea route created SO many opportunities.
The Red Sea route can deepen our understanding and trust of God.
As we walked through our own Red Sea of debt, we learned what it means to truly walk by faith. Right after I became pastor, we had to have an extra $5,000 to pay our bond company or we would be in default and possibly lose everything.
At that point $5,000 could have been $5 million! We had nothing in the bank at all. It was that day when a former pastor called the church and told me that our church owned the mortgage on his house, which was once a parsonage (I knew nothing about it). He told me he had retired and wanted to know if he could come by the church and pay off the house. I said, “Of course you can.” That day he delivered to us a check for $5,000. We praised God and sent it right out to the mortgage company! That was a close call, but we knew that was God! You can imagine what this did to build and deepen our trust in God.
Because of the mighty Red Sea and wilderness that we faced, I learned so much about prayer and seeking God daily. I remember walking around the property early each morning while it was still dark, praying that God would bring us through and not allow the doors of the church to be shut. I could never put a price tag on the things I learned about God in those early days.
In the ministry, everybody faces their own Red Seas. They can look so intimidating and scary. But never underestimate the value of those times. They can be very precious as we seek God, deepen our relationship with Him, and learn firsthand the simple truth – YES! I can trust my God!
Next week I will give one final thought on this – the Red Sea route can close doors to our past that need closing!