This is a quote from Robert J. Morgan’s book RED SEA RULES:
At the Red Sea, God put His people in a position where His presence had never been so real to them. Using difficulty, He cultivated within them a greater appreciation of Himself than ever before. As one commentator put it, ‘God’s presence in the trial is much better than EXEMPTION from the trial. The Lord’s presence is never so sweet as in moments of appalling difficulty.”
As I read this I wondered if we, that is to say I, recognize the sweetness of His presence when I come up against adversity, great or small. Sara taught this morning that we should be so sensitive to the “SUDDENLIES” that the Lord brings into our lives, unannounced, (paraphrased). She pointed out that we should be aware, always of the unpredictable moments and episodes, even brief ones, that we suddenly might see and identify the presence and the work of the Lord in that situation or circumstance.
It would do us all well, to heed the teachings about God’s SUDDENLIES that both Sara and Joel Osteen have spoken about.
When situations seem insurmountable or void of any appearance of change, then we should seek the presence, look for the sweet presence of a godly visitation, a stroke of a miracle, a touch of the divine in the situation…to recognize it and to identify it as the presence and “SUDDENELY” of the Lord. We should always abide in HOPE and stay in FAITH to receive the answer in whatever way the Lord chooses to send it. And then to praise and worship Him for it.
Robert Morgan says , ‘In the 17th century John Trapp wrote this; ” God loans out His mercies to us for the rent of our praise, that we might have the benefit of them and He may have the GLORY!”
I hope to stay in Hope and Faith that when the suddenlies come, I will discern and Praise and thank Him for the work and touch of the Lord and His miracle working power.
thedailylily.com 
Another wise quote from Robert J.Morgan’s RED SEA RULES book that I wish to share with the LILIES …” We mustn’t dobut in the dark what God has shown us in the light. We mustn’t collapse in adversity”
Looks like Robert J Morgan’s was one who understood what it really was like to rejoice in the Lord and His fellowship at all times like Sara wrote about in her blog ‘Mosaic of Joy’ from Nov 4th. I think his statement/attitude was a good example of this quote from her blog:
“The question to us is; are we able to sing, shout and rejoice in the midst of our troubles. In the middle of a busy day or in the emotional fear of the night? The prophet Habakkuk finds everything in his external world that can go wrong going wrong. And, he declares “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk goes on to tell us about his exuberance and his leaping for joy over his fellowship with Yahweh, his Lord.”
Are we able to go on and do our work even better and accomplish our goals and have time, finances and energy to help others meet theirs at our time of rejoicing.
Maybe one does not doubt so much what God has shown them in light or dark as much as they doubt what they thought God showed them or someone else told them? Wrong choices and wrong voices may have a much greater acoustic range than the gentle voice of The Holy Spirit or The Great Good Shepherd’s strong admonitions.
“Wrong choices and wrong voices may have a much greater acoustic range than the gentle voice of The Holy Spirit or The Great Good Shepherd’s strong admonitions.” Sara above comment
This reminds me of this scripture,”Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matt 7:13-14
The loud, the things in front of us that grab our attention or satisfy our appetites seem to open to us like an inviting gate. And in we walk like cattle to the slaughter and miss God’s best for us…that narrow path the Savior walked.
“Wrong choices and wrong voices”, I’d like to invite us to reread the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3: 1-7: ” The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?’ ‘Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,’ the woman replied. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ‘You won’t die!’ the serpent replied to the woman. ‘God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would gie her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”
Yes, I think the wrong choices and wrong voices had the higher acoustics, in this account?
Read with me the footnotes for Genesis 3: 1-6 ” Disguised as a shrewd serpent, Satan came to temp Eve. At one time, Satan had been a glorious angel. But in pride, he rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven. As a created being, Satan has definite limitations. Although he is trying to tempt everyone away from God, he will not be the final victor. In 3: 14,15, God promises that Satan will be crushed by one of the woman’s offspring, the Messiah. Why does satan tempt us? Temptation is Satan’s invitation to give in to his kind of life and give up on God’s kind of life. Satan tempted Eve and succeeded in getting her to sin. Ever since then, he’s been busy getting people to sin. He even tempted Jesus (Matt. 4: 1-11). But Jesus did not sin! How could Eve have resisted temptation? By following the same guidelines we can follow. First, we must realize that being tempted is not a sin. We have not sinned until we give in to the temptation. Then, to resist temptation, we (1) pray for strength to resist, (2) run, sometimes literally, and (3) say no when confronted with what we know is wrong. James 1:12 tells of the blessings and rewards for those who don’t give in when tempted. The serpent, satan, tempted Eve by getting her to doubt God’s goodness. He implied that God was strict, stingy, and selfish for not wanting Eve to share his knowledge of good and evil. Satan made Eve forget all that God had given her and, instead, focus on what God had forbidden. We fall into trouble, too, when we dwell on what God forbids rather than on the countless blessings and promises God has given us. The next time you are feeling sorry for yourself and what you don’t have consider all you do have and thank God. Then your doubts won’t lead you into sin. Adam and Eve got what they wanted: an intimate knowledge of both good and evil. But they got it by doing evil, and the results were disastrous. Sometimes we have the illusion that freedom is doing anything we want. But God says that true freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do. The restrictions he gives us are for our good, helping us avoid evil. We have the freedom to walk in front of a speeding car, but we don’t need to be hit to realize it would be foolish to do so. Don’t listen to satan’s temptations. You don’t have to do evil to gain more experience and learn more about life.”
This is certainly some “food for thought”, for us, isn’t it?
Good thought-food, Needles. At a recent Intercessory Prayer Seminar one of the facilitatior/teachers Alan Watkins made this comment as he was teaching that sometimes sin is a deterrent to our healing. He said, “satan tries to give us something that we already have.” That is, satan tempts us to trust in the flesh or some satanic deception instead of standing steady in the Lord. He told EVE that if they ate the apple they would be like God. Well, Mr. Watkins remarks, ‘they were already like God. They were made in the image and likeness of God and God had it written and confirmed in His book. But pride makes us think we can one-upmanship God and we know better.
I think I wrote a comment before that Adam & Eve already the world on a string…it was all theirs to cultivate and populate and dominate everything but that one tree. Some of us are like that.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 it says 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our[a] behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. We don’t know the peril here but Paul often was face with dire situations. He was in total dependence of God and he knew from past experience that God would show up. Thank goodness he always shows up.
He will show up wherever we encounter the dire conditions that we can not handle and we call out to him to help us. The situation may be at work or even with family misunderstandings. One time when the team was in India we were way laid from our travels and told to stay in a room with a guard outside the door. We did not know what would happen to us as we were in a foreign country. One of the members of the team who was in her 80’s knelt and prayed to God. Within a very short period of time we were released and told a plane would be coming to deliver us to our destination and that they would be serving us a breakfast. God showed up!
Most of the situations we face may not be like this. Perhaps we are feeling too much stress in the marketplace. We call on the Lord and we focus on Him. We know that God loves us so much that we are His children and he will turn the situation around. We don’t know what growth God is teaching us through the ordeal or what He will do in the future, but we stay focused on Him because He always has our best interest in his hand. Scripture says: Hebrews 13:5-6 “Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things that you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you,’ so that we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me.’ So hold on steadily to the Lord, even through the storms of life blow for He God has control of the Winds – know and believe it!
Needles you wrote above, “Sometimes we have the illusion that freedom is doing anything we want. But God says that true freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do.”
God knows the circumstances we will face in the future and He knows how to navigate our journey. If we will obey and trust Him and stay in step with Him, we can experience His best for us.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. ”
Psalm 3:5-8