FAITH + ACTIONS

14 “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

-Exodus 14:14-15

• Exodus 14:14 is by far one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible.

• Most of us, including myself, have looked at it as a faith infusing verse of what we should do when we need help or a breakthrough.

• When we’re looking for God to do something big. Or when we’re waiting to see God bring something into our lives.

• Be still. Let the Lord fight the battle for you. Let go and let God.

• In short, do nothing.

There’s just one problem with that: verse 15.

• In verse 14 Moses tells the people that God will fight for them and to be still.

• But in verse 15 God comes in and immediately contradicts Moses.

• He doesn’t tell them to stand still. He tells them to shut up and get moving. Into the sea.

• Moses was wrong.

• In isolation, verse 14 is wrong. Yes, God’s going to fight for them.

• But it won’t be while they’re standing there and doing nothing.

• It’s in the parted sea.

• It’s while they’re moving that God will be fighting.

• Sometimes it can be easy to mistake patience for what’s really passivity.

• Faith for what could be laziness. Or even faithlessness.

• Sometimes it can be easy to think that we should stand still and cry out when God’s actually looking for us to shut up and get moving.

• Not to do everything on our own, obviously.

• But to realize that faith isn’t necessarily sitting and waiting for God to do everything on His own for you. God fights while you move.

• For example, if you’re unemployed it isn’t faith for you to stay at home and watch the GAME SHOW while praying during commercial breaks and expecting God to throw a job into your lap.

• Faith is updating your resume. Getting yourself out the door.

• And applying for jobs. • Let God fight for you in your job

search.

• You could apply this to pretty much every area of your life. Relationships. Finances. Major life decisions.

• Faith isn’t passive; It’s active.• Read Hebrews 11.

• I defy you to find me one verse that says, “By faith, they watched.”

• It’s always by faith, they moved and by faith, they did.

• That’s because faith is knowing who God is and acting accordingly.

• And then watching Him act accordingly.

• One of our biggest problems is that we confuse faith with hope.

• Many people are standing in hope instead of walking in faith.