30 August 2025
The day might come when you have to get up from your comfortable chair and stand in front of the Red Sea.
Behind you is a very large number of disagreeable looking men in nasty looking transport making an earsplitting racket sounding dreadful which indicates that it is an enemy of the worst kind. They mean business. They mean death in a cruel way.
In front of you is the Red Sea. Unassailable and you haven’t even got a row boat to get over the terrifying stormy waters. A sinking feeling is crawling like wet into your shoes and up your legs.
Then you will do everything you can to avoid the inevitable cruelty behind you and drowning before you.
You send out prayer requests to anyone and everyone who likes to talk to the Almighty God. Requests for deliverance. You spend days and nights on your knees praying in every way you have learned how to. Day and night. Night and day, you put your petition before the Lord of lords and King of kings. In Godly authority, you announce and proclaim Scripture of rescue and put every ounch of your body and soul and faith in the Sovereign Lord.
But as the raucous noise behind you gets closer, you realise that there is absolutely nothing you can do and a weak “God, help!!!” escapes your troubled mind.
A voice whispers calmly in your troubled mind. “Trust Me.”
It takes a while before the single whisper gets through your unease. You breathe deep and say out loud “In the name of Jesus, through the authority of Your Spirit in me, I choose to TRUST You, my LORD and God my Father in heaven. Whatever You decide to take me through, I will TRUST You.” From then on, the only words that you keep on repeating is “I TRUST You Father God. Even when I pass through the waters, You will be with me, for they shall not overflow me (Is43:2a). I put my life in Your hands and whatever You choose to take me through, I will continue to TRUST You.”
It was not easy. It is never easy. The overwhelming and grating clamour behind you never slows down. It does not stop, ever.
But in this same terrible process, you learn new methods through the Spirit of God inside of you. You learn to shift your focus to what is crucial. And as your focus changes, the old song becomes wonderfully relevant: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the Light of His Glory and Grace.”
The clanging din becomes dim and eventually all that you taste and see is the Excellence of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit. You recognise their absolute Goodness and Beauty and Wonder and you go through countless of days in awe of Who God is. You revel in the Strength and Power and Brilliance and Mastery and Dazzle and Radiance and Genius and Wisdom and Brightness of Jesus, King over all. Whenever your focus drifts slightly, you choose again by the Spirit of God to look full in the Beautiful glory of your Father.
A Godly Peace which transcends all understanding permeates your mind, nothing like the world can ever give you.
And then one day, with a bit of surprise and tons of gratitude, you realise that you are standing on the opposite shore and the air around you is quiet. You ponder on the situation and eventually it dawned on you:
God didn’t remove the Red Sea.
God didn’t remove you from the Red Sea.
God took you straight through the Red Sea on dry ground.
That’s what He does when your eyes are fixed on Him.
(The above essay and digital vector artwork is written & drawn by Sulene Taylor)