Faith requires our acknowledged weakness or inability to save ourselves, when only God can. We have to be brought to places of weakness to discover that we need a Savior, and to learn that human effort is insufficient. Faith in His promises relies on His faithfulness, where we have to depend on Him to bring us through our wilderness experiences (Ps 34:17,19; Phil 4:19). God still provides today in the wilderness.

In Exodus 13:17,18, God led the children of Israel out of Egypt by way of the wilderness or desert. He did not lead them the shorter way along the Mediterranean coast because they were not ready to see war and they would have returned to Egypt. God wanted to prepare their hearts for the physical and spiritual battles they would be facing ahead, so he took them the way of weakness through the wilderness. God wanted to bring them to places of weakness so they would discover their need for a Savior.

Three days after crossing the Red Sea, the supplies the children of Israel brought with them from Egypt ran out. They became thirsty and were led by God to a place called Marah, where they needed to trust God to provide water for them. God is continually bringing us to places where our supplies will run out. Where human effort runs out. Where we are out of options and our backs are against the wall. Where we will cry out, I need a Deliverer! This is a place of weakness but God sees it as a place of strength. Because when we are weak then He is strong and He will get the Glory (2 Co 12:10). 

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Devotionals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.