Pity Parties

Psalm 139:16

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Nothing in our lives is accidental. Everything has a reason. It serves some purpose and was already preplanned long before we were ever born. That's God's sovereignity. He controls everything and micro manages even the smallest details of His creation

I use to have a lot of pity parties. I was the queen of feeling sorry for myself. Until recently I thought because I felt sorry for myself God must feel sorry for me too. I guess I wanted to be babied. Then I was shocked to learn God actually hates pity parties. Not because He's unfeeling or doesn't care. He just knows better and He knows when we feel sorry for ourselves it hinders progression and we're not trusting and depending on Him. He has plans for us and when we get stuck in a rut with self pity we can't move forward to what He's got ready for us

Some things are really scary. Some things are really confusing. Some things don't make sense and the weak creatures we are we're like deer in the headlights. We just freeze and shut down. When Moses was leaving Egypt with over 3 million Israelite slaves he had witnessed some of the greatest miracles mankind had ever saw in Egypt. After everything he and the 3 million people saw they get to the Red Sea. No one thought to try to get across the sea some how. No one thought to say "hey Moses why don't you go ask God what we should do now? We're kind of at a dead end if you haven't noticed." They just settled down on the shore started cooking and getting comfy

Suddenly the Egyptians are coming and they seem trapped between the sea and an army. The people start to freak and soon everyone's in a panic. After all the plagues they saw God send on Egypt for them, after the miracles and the massive provisions they witnessed and received...they're in absolute meltdown. They're screaming at each other and they're screaming at Moses and Aaron. It's total chaos. They accuse God and Moses of bringing them out from Egypt just to get them killed and they instantly throw the biggest pity party mankind had ever saw at that time minus the DJ

Moses starts yelling trying to encourage the people to be calm and not be afraid. To trust God because He would deliver them as He had been doing up until that moment. He had led them all that way and wasn't going to desert them now. After this stirring speech Moses turned away from the people and toward the sea and starts crying to God begging Him to do something. I love what God says "The LORD said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.' " Exodus 14:15

I can't judge the Israelites though. I would have done the same thing. It wasn't until the people started heading toward the sea that God parted it. He could have easily done it while they were freaking out to calm them down a little but He didn't. He wanted them trusting Him and believing Him up until the very last second
despite their fear and how bad things looked because "The just shall live by faith." Habukkuk 2:4 and "without faith it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 11:6. Like I hear all the time from Sharbel "God gives us everything we need to live a life in obedience to Him but we must put forth the effort"

God doesn't bring any of us into a terrible situation to dump us off and watch the slaughter while He eats popcorn. He does it to teach us about Him and to strengthen our faith when we do see Him act. Once in a while I start throwing a pity party but then I'm reminded that as long as I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself nothing is getting done and most importantly nothing is happening