A Prayer for When the Path is Unknown – Your Daily Prayer

A Prayer for When the Route is Unknown
By Kyle Norman

“The total Israelite business established out from the Desert of sin, touring from area to position as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the persons to consume.” – Exodus 17:1-2

I want my life to make feeling and be requested and arranged, with my working day managing according to my personal programs. If there is to be a twist, hurdle, or nearly anything unexpected, I would like to see it coming a mile absent to have satisfactory time to get ready myself. Following all, difficulties are less annoying or upsetting when we can control them absent. Am I on your own in this? You may perhaps have recognized lifestyle doesn’t do the job this way. And far more to the stage, God not often will work this way. Through Scripture the persons of God frequently uncover them selves engaging in the unpredicted and the unplanned. God’s existence are not able to be managed or controlled, and due to the fact of this, we at times find ourselves experiencing that which we would hardly ever have conceived. 

Israel’s exodus journey is a primary case in point of this. The Israelites had seasoned a grand perform of liberation with the miraculous parting of the Purple Sea. This redemption was effective, interesting, and vivid. Underneath was a guarantee of new lifetime. God was top them to a land throughout the river, a land of guarantee and blessing, joy, and delight. There is no question Israel bubbled with pleasure as they began their journey. But God did the unexpected. Israel traveled from spot to put. Their pathway to the promised land appeared to transform this way and that way it appeared the way to freedom was not as straightforward as they experienced imagined. And then, to top it all off, the Lord led them to Rephidim, exactly where there was no drinking water. Importantly, Rephidim was known as wadi, a watering total. Rephidim was defined by the presence of life-providing h2o, and still there was none. Ahead of we think perhaps Israel had taken a mistaken flip alongside the way, we have to don’t forget the Scripture declares Israel traveled “as the Lord commanded them.” This dried-up wadi was the actual position God introduced them to. 

When God qualified prospects us in unforeseen methods or does not do what we assume he must do, our all-natural inclination is to imagine there is something erroneous. We either feel God is not existing or that God is punishing us. Possibly way, we become mired in negativity and question, and that is what Israel did. Scripture says the absence of water led them to quarrel. The phrase for quarrel usually means to provide a legal scenario towards someone. Israel did not just air their stress or confusion, they charged Moses (and by extension the Lord) with not accomplishing his task. God didn’t do what they believed he should have, which led them to anger and annoyance. Why? Because this whole liberation detail was not heading in accordance to their approach.

Do we at any time conflate God’s will with our individual ideas? It’s uncomplicated to do. However, if we are critical in our need to observe God’s will, and honestly pray for God to take regulate of our life, we have to willfully acknowledge that God from time to time sales opportunities us in means we would not assume. Religion consists of acknowledging that God may perhaps, in point, tutorial us to areas in which we feel stretched, awkward, or perhaps even a little bit annoyed. 

Finally, on the other hand, it is due to the fact our life is not generally as we structure it that we can know God does guideline us. God is faithful. No matter if we are sensible or whiney God is faithfully existing. In the sudden location of Rephidim, God questioned Moses to wander in advance of the men and women and strike the rock with his staff. Amid the confusion and complaining, and persons questioning irrespective of whether the Lord was amongst them, God declared “I will stand prior to you” (17:6). This sudden place grew to become one the place Israel learned it is not out of luck, they received their lifetime but by God’s merciful hand. And so, Moses struck the rock, water came gushing out, and the men and women drank lifestyle-providing water. We always have a option around the thoughts we inquire. We can possibly question “Is the Lord among us or not?”, or we can ask “What is the Lord performing in this article?” We can ask “Why are you not supplying us water?” or we can request “How will the Lord present?” Just one established of issues assumes God is passive and distant, the other acknowledges that even throughout the unknowns of daily life, God is with us.

Let us Pray:
Gracious and loving Father, I thank you that in you I dwell, transfer, and have my staying. You know the quantity of my days and the system of my life. Thank you for holding, guiding, and offering for me. While I imagine you are in handle, I locate I can so effortlessly become pissed off or offended when my daily life does not take place according to my have wishes or schedules. In these occasions when I truly feel nervous or afraid, I pray that you mail your comforting Spirit on me. Enable me to see my lifetime in the context of your will. When I uncover myself in an unpredicted spot, or facing an surprising hurdle, assistance me see how you stand ahead of me. Jesus, you are Lord of my existence. Give me the energy I have to have to release my grip about my times and to release my life into your fingers. May perhaps you stir in my heart so I may lengthy for your will outside of my very own. Open my eyes, O Lord, that I could see your glory direct me night and working day. This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Photograph Credit rating: ©Unsplash/Gift Habeshaw