How often do we see God’s hand at work in mighty, incredible, and powerful ways, then quickly forget; living as if God has no power — past, present, or future?  What is it that you or I are facing alone; afraid God has no power in our situation?  Or worse, we’ve convinced our self that He doesn’t even care.  How quickly we forget!

You do know it’s not just you, don’t you?  A large section of Exodus 15 is a song to God praising Him for His mighty power.  The song describes God as the writer’s strength, defense, and salvation.  We read of a majestic God.  Not just a showplace, seated on a throne, ahh . . . that looks nice, kind of majesty.  No, we’re talking a majestic display of power.  Greatness in action.  Incredible results that the Israelites didn’t see coming.  You know, the knock your socks off, WOW, kind of power that could convince you that this God can do anything.  As a matter of fact, the song came out of the Israelites witnessing God opening up the Red Sea so that they could walk across on dry land.  Following their journey across the dry sea bed, they were also able to witness God destroying their enemy — the Egyptian army who were in pursuit to recapture or kill them.  Just prior to this written song, we read in Exodus 14:31, “And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses his servant.”

What a start!  These people could face anything now, right?  Witnessing this great event and being involved in the “pep rally” for the journey ahead would surely set this nation of people on the right track for a smooth journey of following and trusting God as He led them to their destination.  We read Exodus 14 and 15 and we say, How could it be otherwise?  The people have seen God’s great power.  They have responded with a commitment of trust and obedience.  This is going to be one incredibly smooth road trip to the promised land.

But wait . . . something is wrong with the written story.  We don’t even get out of Exodus 15 before we read, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?'”  Then just a short six weeks after their miraculous departure from Egypt, we read in Exodus 16:2, “the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.”  Wow!  Talk about hero to zero.  What a fast trip from everyone fearing God and putting their trust in Him and in Moses, to the entire community grumbling about their situation and the leadership that has brought them to where they are.  As you finish reading Exodus, you find that this entire journey is led by God’s presence in a cloud.  But while the cloud of God’s presence determines the direction each day, the cloud of the people’s grumbling sets the attitude for the entire trip.  Somehow they had forgotten quickly the God that was their strength, defense, and salvation in leading them out of slavery.

We would never do that, right?  We see God’s power deliver us.  His mighty hand rescued us from the bondage of sin.  We recognize the freedom that we have once He has broken the chains of disobedience that has held us captive for far too long.  We had tried in the past to break free on our own, but to no avail, so we know just how powerful God has to be.  God’s power has brought fear, trust, and obedience into our life and our walk each day shows it.  Nothing comes our way that is too hard for God to handle.  We know it and we live confidently in our pursuit of God knowing that He will never leave us or forsake us.  What a life!  What peace!  What joy!  What contentment!  What reality?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.  Okay, it rarely, if ever, works that way.  We are far too much like the Israelites than we want to be, or care to admit.  We need the blood of Jesus to cover our sins and disobedience on a continual basis.  We need to know the power of the resurrection on a daily basis to remind us “that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”  We need the whole of scripture to show us that God understands and is patient in His love and leading us to maturity.  We need the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us to teach us and convict us regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Will you recognize God as Almighty in your life today?  God is mighty in power — not just in written stories from the Bible, not just in the past as He saved you from the bondage of sin, not just in the future when He will return in power and glory, but right now, today, God is mighty in power.

May you and I live today remembering the deeds of our Mighty God and knowing He is still that same Mighty God right now.