STAND STILL AND SEE THE DELIVERANCE OF THE LORD

Proclamation:

"Moses answered the people, 'Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance The Lord will bring you today ... The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.'"  Exodus 14:13-14 (NIV)

Explanation:

In this second book of Moses, after he has led the Israelites our of Egypt, they were now trapped with the Red Sea in front of them, the Pharaoh and his army behind them, and mountains on both sides.  They were afraid that they would be killed there, and Moses told them "Do not be afraid.  Stand firm ... The Lord will fight for you ..."  The Lord parted the Red Sea for them and they crossed over on dry land while He kept Pharaoh’s army away from them.  Then He destroyed the army when they pursued them. (Exodus 14:18 -29)

Application:

As believers, we are children of God.  He will protect us, and fight our battles for us.  We have enemies that only He can protect us from. (Ephesians 6:11)  All we have to do is stand on His Word and do as He says.  Our faith may be tested, but He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)   It does not matter whatever the problem, believers just need to keep the faith and stand on His Word.  As the song says:
"What do you do,
when you've done all that you can,
and it seems like you can't make it through,
you just stand ...
after you've done all that you can,
you just stand."

You Can Be A New You If You Choose

"And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ ... not counting men's sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us."  2 Corinthians 5:15-20 (NIV)

In a letter to the believers in Corinth, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul wrote that because Christ had died and rose for them, they should live for Christ and they should view each other differently.  As believers in Christ they were new creatures, the old persons had passed away and they were now new people.  The Lord God had reconciled them unto Himself through Christ, and they were now ambassadors to the world for Christ.

Unfortunately for us, when we accepted Christ as our personal savior, our old sinful nature did not cease to exist.  There is a constant battle going on within us, between our sinful fleshly nature and our spiritual nature, as it was within Paul. (Romans 7:15-23)  We simply are no longer controlled by our sinful nature, we now have a choice.  When we focus on Christ and The Word of God, we can choose to behave in a Christ-like manner.  When we submit to The Lord and focus on Christ, then we can resist the devil and sinful temptations. (James 4:7)  However, when we choose to focus on worldly pleasures and the desires of the flesh, our old sinful nature influences us.  We must choose to do the right thing.  We are ambassadors for Christ, and we should choose wisely.