Already accomplished.
During lunch, I hopped in my car and drove to Walmart to grab a couple things. I don’t typically leave work on my break, but felt the need to escape for a moment. On the verge of tears, I reached out to a friend. “I know God is in control. I know He has already answered this prayer… it’s already done. It’s just hard right now, walking through it.” Before I walked back in the school I quietly whispered, “Lord, I trust you. I believe you for this.”
With plenty of time left before class, I sat down with my lunch and new Bible study I’m beginning. I opened to day one, which was titled, “Light in the Darkness.”
I immediately sighed. “Okay God. I hear you.”
In the midst of any and all darkness, He is our light. He is our hope.
The bottom line - we wholly trust Him, or we don’t.
Although I’ve read this verse a million times of God leading the Israelites out of Egypt, it stopped me in my tracks today,
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.” Exodus 13:21-22
The Lord went BEFORE them. To lead them, to give them light. He did not depart from them.
The word “before” struck me, so I looked up the Hebrew word.
Paniym.
This word is used more than 2,100 times in the Bible, beginning in Genesis 1:1. It is translated as face, but also as presence, surface, front, before and countenance. Translated here, it means before and behind, in the front of, beforetime, in the presence of.
Think about this friends. This is such a difficult concept to grasp because we exist inside of time, whereas God exists outside of time. He was, He is, and He is to come. So anything that we face or will face, He is already there. He has already gone ahead of us. He is not ignorant to it, but is with us and desires to lead and bring light to our darkness.
A Scripture I cling to is found in 1 John 5:14-15,
“And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”
There are conditions here, right? If. If we ask according to His will and if we believe Him. But IF we do, we HAVE. It is already ours. We may not see the fruition of it in this here and now moment, but we possess it. God has already answered the request because He goes ahead of us.
Isn’t that just - wow?
Several other Scriptures came to mind as I reflected on the Lord going before us. Probably one of the most familiar is the promise God gave to Joshua,
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
If we are in Him, this promise holds true for us as well. God is always with us. How can we know that for certain?
Look!
God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
And Jesus’s last words to us confirm this,
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
So friends, I pray you find hope and confidence in this today. No matter your circumstance, no matter the weights you are carrying, no matter your pain - it’s all held in the hands of God. And it is already finished, just as Jesus said. Waiting isn’t necessarily easy. But we can rest in His promises and in His hope.
If you need hope today, the words of the prophet Isaiah bring just that. Isaiah prophesied the birth of Jesus 700 years before its fulfillment. We can cling to what verse 1 says, “There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.”
It’s coming friends.
(See Isaiah 9:1-7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adt3DKizXes
