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What’s Chasing You Today? 
by pamela spurling

When things chase us... that’s what I want to share with you today.

Exodus 4:13-14: "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

You may have things in your past that chase you. You may have things in your present that chase you.

The LORD Himself may be allowing different circumstances to play out in your life---consequences of sin, consequences of poor decisions, consequences of indifference, consequences of rebellion---things that chase you today.

It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we see the LORD. We see His Hand, we see His handiwork. These are the times in which our faith is built up. When we can no longer see a way out, when we can no longer ‘go it alone’ and when we no longer have any answers. These are the times when we are broken enough, fallen enough, low enough to lift our eyes from the ground and see... see the salvation of the LORD. Do you have Egyptians chasing you today? Are you staggering in unbelief? What does the Word say? Romans 4:19-21 says, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." Now, what did that verse in Exodus say? It said, "Fear ye not, stand still... for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." What is the key, here? Well, the key is: faith... and the personal behavior is several fold. One, you must believe---be fully persuaded that what God has promised, He will also perform. Two, you mustn’t stagger. To stagger in unbelief demonstrates lack of full persuasion that He will do as He said. Knowing that the LORD will fight for you enables you to "hold your peace" and not fear. It enables you to "stand still." You see it all hinges in trusting God. He is the one who has done, is doing, or will do the work. It is ours to believe, it is His to *do*. Our faith, our standing still, our fearing not. But is it really our faith? Must we create it, secure it, figure it out? No. It is of His good pleasure that we have faith. It is a gift from Him. He is the author, perfector and finisher of our faith. Our part is obedience... obedience to fear not and to stand still. When we give into fear, we do not hold our peace, we are demonstrating lack of trust---this lack of trust can be called disobedience. For we know that the LORD says that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. If we love Him, we will obey Him. Aren’t the commands of the LORD strange? Strange because in our finite minds, we reason that His ways seem foolish. Think of some of His ways... walking on water? Marching around a mountain to gain victory? Wandering in the wilderness to see a land flowing with milk and honey? New life through death on a cross? A man who committed many sins is called a man after God’s own heart? A man who had no children the father of many nations? Life after three days in the belly of the whale? Days in a fiery furnace and not being burned? Standing still? Holding your peace? You see? Weaving back and forth throughout history are threads of seeming foolishness. See? Strength in weakness, light in darkness, life in death, freedom in submission. You see? God’s ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts than our thoughts. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Mt 16:25

So, what’s chasing you today?

You may be chased by things that no one knows about... things that you feel terribly ashamed over... chased by regrets about things you have said or done... chased by disappointment over things that have happened to you in your life... frustration over things you cannot change---chased by things that you thought were going to be different than they are... sadness over the death or separation of people dear to your heart... chased by disappointment in children’s actions or in the actions of other family members. Instead of standing still to see what the LORD will do, we often run to things that only exaggerate the problems we have, then we’re often chased by the guilt of not trusting in and waiting on the LORD. We get caught up in fear... in the what if’s. We forget that the LORD said that He will fight for us---the battle belongs to Him, ours is to stand still, to hold our peace, to wait on Him. He is acquainted with all the things that trouble us and all these things do not escape His gaze. The arm of the LORD is not shortened that He cannot save, and nothing is too difficult for Him. Frustration, disappointment, despair, shame or sadness---these are the very things the LORD will carry for you---these are the things for which He died. He came that you might ‘have life, and that [you] might have it more abundantly.’

Not only will the LORD carry these things for you, He will also replace all those feelings of frustration, disappointment, despair, shame or sadness with joy... not joy only, but joy unspeakable. Trouble is, we miss the blessings because we hold on to the very things that cause us the grief and because we are holding these things in our hands, we cannot take hold of the Hand of the LORD. When we allow things to chase us, we set ourselves up for defeat every time. We demonstrate not only a lack of faith, but also a lack of understanding of or obedience to what we read in the Word. In faith we must learn to obey the Word of the LORD. In faith we must learn to stand still. Standing still is not doing nothing... it is an active choice. We often get tricked into thinking that standing still is doing nothing and the enemy will persuade us to believe that if we do nothing (like "standing still") we will be consumed! Not so! Standing still and allowing the LORD to fight for us actively demonstrates our faith in and love for the LORD our Savior. Remember the battle belongs to the LORD---this is His will, ours is to wait on Him in obedience---this is an act of our will.

2 Thessalonians 3.4 "And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you." Are you staggering in unbelief today? If you are facing a battle today, then what you have concluded in advance will determine what you will do next. You will continue to waver or stagger in unbelief and run with or from those things that are chasing you, or you will stand still and wait on the LORD. I share this because I can understand and relate as I, too, waver in unbelief from time to time. I allow things to chase me, to distract me, and to distort my vision---my vision of the LORD, my vision of His ways and of His Word. It is in these times that I have a choice to make and must decide whether to obey and do what I know to be true or allow myself to be carried away on the wings of emotion. I cannot afford to wait until the battle comes to get prepared for it. I must set my mind to being renewed day by day, reading His Word and knowing His promises. I must know Him more and more to trust in His ways and not in my own understanding. Then I must determine to obey what I know to obey from His written Word and to obey even the slightest promptings He gives. It is prompt obedience that enables me to more quickly hear and obey Him and He proves to be both completely faithful and fully trustworthy. I must put on the whole armour of God and having done all: to stand---trusting in Him to fight for me as He says in His Word. The more I walk with Him, learn of Him and trust in Him, the more I’m sure I can trust in *Him only* to carry all of my frustration, disappointment, despair, shame or sadness. I rehearse the different ways the LORD has worked in my life and promises and ways He has recorded in His Word. All of this I must do in advance because I am powerless in and of myself... but knowing that the battle belongs to the LORD enables me to soar the heights---with joy.

So, what’s chasing you today?

"...Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew to you today..."

With sincere love--- pamela spurling 

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