The God Who Knows
“The LORD is the God who knows.”
1 Samuel 2:3 (CEB)
John Piper once wrote in A Godward Life, “Books don't change people; paragraphs do, Sometimes even sentences.”
With all due respect to Dr. Piper, sometimes books do change lives. Or perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that God sometimes uses books to change lives. Either way, God has used Robert J. Morgan’s The Red Sea Rules to help me navigate difficult situations over the last twenty years. This little book can easily be read in about two hours, but it is packed with godly wisdom. Using Exodus 14-15 Morgan outlines ten “rules” or principles that he gleaned as “ten ways of handling dilemmas and discouragements- a divine protocol for handling life …and a powerful and effective strategy for coping with the messes and stresses of life.”
My husband Bruce initially purchased The Red Sea Rules because it contained an anonymous and untitled poem he liked.
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man
And skill a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all his heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed
Watch His methods, with His ways!....
God knows what He's about."
One night I picked up Morgan’s little book and began reading. When I finished it two hours later, I had found a new friend. Over the next few weeks, I worked through the book and the Exodus 13-15 text again and again. Recounting the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, Morgan discovered ten God-given strategies for difficult times. Each strategy is called a "rule" and each one progressively builds on the rules which precede it. Each rule is important, but there are four of them that I have found to be invaluable. They are:
Red Sea Rule #1 - Realize that God means for you to be where you are.
Red Sea Rule #4 - Pray!
Red Sea Rule #5 - Stay calm and confident and give God time to work.
Red Sea Rule #6 - When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.
Through the years I’ve changed Robert J. Morgan’s wording slightly for my personal crises and collapsed these four rules to just three:
God knows where I am, and he means for me to be here.
Pray!
Discipline your emotions and do your next thing.
These three rules have proven to be reliable tools for navigating my own life crises. Over the last 18 months, I’ve found myself repeatedly returning to Red Sea Rule #1 as we’ve faced multiple family crises. The first principle for facing any life crisis is to remind myself that God knows where I am even if I don’t! God is sovereign; he reigns and rules; and nothing takes him by surprise.
In the first few moments following Rainbow Omega’s phone call informing me of James Bruce’s sudden death, the words “God knows where I am and he means for me to be here” spoke comfort and peace to my mind and heart. Prayer and disciplining my emotions in order to do my next thing were the strategies that helped carry me through the days, weeks, and months that followed.
Ten months later we received my breast cancer diagnosis. “God knows where I am and he means for me to be here” were words of hope and reassurance, not just as I received the news, but also as I had my surgery and radiation treatments.
Three weeks ago, Bruce’s cardiologist unexpectedly announced, “He has to have immediate open heart surgery. He has four blockages and it’s too dangerous for a stent.” Morgan’s rules and God’s sovereignty again provided stability and strength to my mind and heart as I remembered, “God knows where we are and he means for us to be here.”
Behind each Red Sea Rule is an unshakeable faith in God’s sovereignty, omniscience, goodness, faithfulness, and love. Each life event listed above was life changing for us and took us by surprise. But not one of them took God by surprise. It was all by his design.
I’ll be teaching a ten week a RSR series this fall. It’s my most requested Bible study and women’s retreat topic. But this study will be different from previous studies because I’ve now lived these rules with my heart and not just with my head. The Every Part podcast recently posted a 3 minute video interview with me about the RSR that can be found here.
Wherever we are today, our God is the God who knows where we are and why we are there. He knows and he cares!
“When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.”
(Charles Spurgeon)