Red Sea Moments Are Necessary For Our Growth

These stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.
–Joshua 4:7

I read once that the time that plants grow the most is not during the warm winds and gentle rains of the spring and summer; the time plants grow most is during furious storms. In fact, botanists tell us that if you could look at a cross-section of the earth during one of those raging storms, you could actually see the roots of those plants go deeper and deeper and deeper into the soil.

It is the same way in our lives. The times we grow the most in our relationship with God is not during the easy times. We grow the most during the storms. It is in our Red Sea moments when we are forced to trust in God.

God puts us in difficult situations through which He miraculously delivers us not only to preserve us but to prepare us for future challenges. We all need to be able to look back and see times when, without a doubt, God’s hand moved in a miraculous way so that we can trust God in the present and the future.

This is why, throughout the Old Testament, Israel set up memorials whenever God delivered them or provided for them. In the book of Joshua, we see Israel setting up a memorial to mark a Red Sea moment that helped them to grow. In Joshua 3, God had miraculously parted the Jordan River to allow the Israelites to cross over into Jericho, much like He did at the Red Sea. Look at what Joshua commanded the Israelites to do immediately after they crossed the Jordan:

Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:5-7)

This reminder of God’s supernatural deliverance was not only for the Israelites’ own spiritual benefit but for their children’s benefit as well. When God delivers us through our Red Sea moments, we can seize the opportunity not only to strengthen our faith but also to share our experience with others.

Is there a time you can point back to when God supernaturally intervened in your life? God wants you to remember those times and tell them to others so that you can grow in your faith and trust Him for future challenges.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Seizing Your Red Sea Moment” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2005.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.