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Grace in the Sidetracks


What a gracious God we serve.

So often, though, His grace is so deeply embedded, we cannot see it within His acts until we stop and peel back the layers.

Like the Israelites being led out from Egypt..

“Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near, for God said, ‘The people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’ Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea, and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17-18, NASB)

I can just hear the people...
“Why are we going the long way!?”
“God sure likes to make things hard on us.”

And I can hear myself...
“What was the point of that?”
“Why would God sidetrack me for that time in life?”
“Does God enjoy just making things difficult for me!?”

But in fact it’s often in the seemingly unnecessarily difficult times that the grace of God is at work.

God did not lead the Israelites through the way that was near because He knew the people might change their minds.
Did you catch that?
He took them through what seemed to be more difficult, not because He took joy in making it a hard journey but to protect them from their own failings. 

 How often do we harbor resentment against God for the winding path our life takes; being frustrated that He’s led us in a way that seemed to end in nothing?   But what if, in fact, He leads us there because He knows that if He leads the other way: we will fail?  
Then the unknowns become the He knows.
The dead ends, the gracious protection from ourselves from a God who is making us holy.

I see it more clearly as I’m driving home on New Year’s Eve, considering the party I was supposed to go to, but that I didn’t get to go to because of lots of people, lots of drinks, lots of love, and a late night.  

I remember my original plan to host my own party.  To close up for the last time at work and turn around and have people over.  I’d thought it’d be great fun.  But then I was invited to another party and changed my mind.
And I’m thinking about it seemed strange that I’d been so excited to go to a party and then it didn’t work out.

And it hits me that if that invitation had not had been extended, I would be driving home at 12 at night to host people; completely worn out and ready to relax.
And it makes me thankful for a God that knows my tendencies.  
Who knew how I would feel and what I would need and provided something so silly as a New Year’s Party to keep me from my own unwise plans.  

Only a God who cares deeply about me would care about such a minute detail as that.
Only a God who knows me better than I know myself would lead me down a dead-end path in the eyes of the world.
Only a God who cares deeply about His people would lead them in a way they would not have chosen, to keep them from their own sin.


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