HELP!!!!!!!!!
Have you ever prayed that 4-letter prayer? It is a deep, guttural prayer that comes out of the pit of your stomach motivated by an overwhelming, paralyzing fear.
We were standing at the edge of an economic Red Sea. I could hear the sound of Pharaoh’s financial chariots bearing down on us. I had no job, and no prospects. I was terrified.
Anne and I and our 2 “toddler” sons had left Winnipeg to move back to BC. I’d been working with the Winnipeg Jets, who were going to Phoenix. We believed the Lord was leading us back to BC.
I had spent a lot of time during my last year with the hockey club cultivating an employment opportunity with a Kelowna organization. They had indicated they wanted to hire me to start a program I had presented to them. There were a few details to work out, but they were excited to bring me on.
So, with faith in our hearts that the Lord was calling us to Kelowna, and the assurance of this organization that they were intending to hire me, we sold our home and shipped all our belongings to Kelowna. We headed to Langley for a few weeks to stay with Anne’s parents prior to the anticipated date for the start of my new job.
Then the day came of the dreaded phone call.
We had been at Anne’s parent’s farm for 4 weeks when I got the call that the deal was off. What? Did I just hear you correctly? We have been talking about this for a year…everything was planned…everything was about to fall into place…
I was gutted. I was winded. I was devastated. How could God let this happen? We were following Him. He was supposed to provide.
I went for a desperate prayer walk with the Lord and prayed that gut honest 4-letter prayer – HELP! I felt like we were the Israelites who had been led out of Egypt only to be trapped at the Red Sea, waiting to be slaughtered by Pharaoh’s financial forces. The economics of reality were about to drown us.
In the midst of my fear laden, anxiety ridden, terrorized state, the Lord asked me a very simple question. He gently whispered to me,
“Do you believe I still part waters?”
I was taken aback. What? What does that mean? I hadn’t initially seen out situation through the lens of the Israelites escape from Egypt, but the similarity of our situation began to dawn on me as I chewed over what the Lord has said to me. We believed the Lord was leading us to a new land. We had moved a great distance to take hold of that which we believed the Lord had promised us.
But now there was something in our way we had not anticipated. We were trapped by something we didn’t know how to get around. I realized I had no option. I had to believe that God can still part waters, or we were dead.
I confessed, “Lord, if you don’t part the waters I don’t know what we’ll do.”
It was at that point I felt the Lord tell me to start my own company. Are you kidding? I have no idea how to start or run a business. I don’t even know how to spell “entrepreneur”.
Unbeknownst to me, this was the beginning of an amazing entrepreneurial journey the Lord has called me on. He completely changed the trajectory of our lives. This was the beginning of discovering my new found glory.
And it started with a shattered opportunity.
Are you facing a Red Sea of sorts? Are you staring into a pile of broken dreams wondering what on earth is going on? Do you feel abandoned by God when you stepped into the very thing you believed He had promised you?
I am here to tell you that God still parts waters. God will make a way. As you cry out to Him, surrender your expectations and ask Him for direction He will make a way through.
God still parts waters. He did it for the Israelites, He did it for us, and He can do it for you.
Exodus 14: 13, 14
“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.’”
Psalm 32:8
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Isaiah 30:21
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”