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Find Hope When You Under Pressure

  • 5 days ago
  • 19 min read

Exodus 14:13-14 NIV 

[13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. [14] The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

Right now, like many other young people her age, my daughter is submitting assignments, preparing for assessments and planning for her graduation from university. 


It’s a big deal – a major rite of passage. 


It’s also a really busy and stressful time. 


Anyone who has ever passed through a period of educational examinations will know that it’s hard. As parents you would love to remove that stress from their shoulders, but you can’t. You can only create the best environment for them to face it on their own. 


There are other situations in life where face enormous stress – sometimes even what seems like existential stress where lives seem to be on the line. It’s not a pleasant place to be at all. 


If you are facing stress like that, then you have my sympathy and my prayers. 


What can we say to someone who is in that situation? We certainly can’t tell them that their stress isn’t real. To them it is – and serious. 


Some situations can be blown out of all proportions and made out to be something they are not, that much is true. I have to say that when my daughter was in high school in particular (and when I was in high school too), there were always teachers who hyped up the importance of the exam for their subject until you were led to believe that the entire course of your existence depended on you getting a passing grade. 


That was never true. 


However, there are situations where we face huge ramifications if we fail. Those are never nice at all. 


I often return to these verses when I am in a stressful time. To me they are a tremendous comfort, as well as a challenge to lift my eyes above the stress to see a fresh perspective.

 

There are three postures in these verses that we often take when life has dealt us a blow, our heart is pumping, our blood is surging, our palms are sweating and we really need a way out now. 


The first posture is one of Fear. 

 

Fear 

Exodus 14:10-13 NIV 

[10] As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. [11] They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? [12] Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” [13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  

Have you ever been in a situation that caused you sheer blind panic? 


I know I have. I really felt a lot of pressure when I was in my thirties and early forties. I had a young family. We had a mortgage to pay. I was the main breadwinner. My job would go through phases: sometimes it was great and I felt like I was doing well, at other times it was going less great and I felt like I was failing badly. 


Those times when I wondered if I would still have a job to go to were never fun. 


Looking back at them, the situations I faced weren’t exactly wonderful. They were challenging, that much was true. But what made then worse was my lack of confidence in my own ability and my unerring knack of getting myself into a blind panic, as if me having an issue at work would place my whole family in penury and poverty. 


Which, in pretty much every situation, was not true. 


Panic has an extraordinary ability to make the problem we are facing seem much bigger and much deeper than it actually is. 


Now, the problem the Israelites were facing was completely and utterly enormous. The Egyptians – the dominant superpower of their day – were racing towards them. They couldn’t move forward due to the seemingly impassable Red Sea.  


It looks like all was lost. 


So they lost their cool and, as we would say nowadays, they freaked out. 


From that perspective, we would say they were justified. 


But look what they had in their favour, or rather, Who: 


Exodus 13:21-22 NIV 

[21] By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. [22] Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. 

In the midst of their fear, they forgot four crucial realities, which we often also forget. 


They forgot the reality of Who God Is. 


Listen to what God told Moses: 


Exodus 3:13-15 NIV 

[13] Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” [14] God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” [15] God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. 

God is the great I AM: He always was God, He always will be God. He is peerless and without equal: 


Psalms 90:1-2 NIV 

[1] Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. [2] Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.90.1-2.NIV)


He had been the God of their ancestors, who had led them, provided for them and promised them they would settle in the Promised Land. That promise had not changed and neither would it. 


And now He was there, in their midst, as the pillars of fire and cloud that guided them along paths they had never trodden. 


They had no reason to be afraid. 


They also forgot the reality of What God Had Done. Those mighty ten plagues through which He had subjugated the mighty Egyptian superpower had seemingly been forgotten by them. God had plainly showed Egypt that their gods were worthless and that He was the One True God. 


There could be little doubt of that now. 


And they had also forgotten What God Was Doing. 


The very fact that they were where they were was such a clear statement of God’s might and His grace. There were a million Israelites. They had almost been taken from slavery under Egypt. They had all been led miraculously by the pillars and fire and cloud until this point. 

It was almost as if all that counted for nothing anymore. 


And they also forgot the reality of What God Said He Would Do. 


Exodus 3:8, 16-17 NIV 

[8] So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  
[16] “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. [17] And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.3.8-17.NIV)


God had promised their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would lead them into the Promised Land. He was keeping that promise through the Ten Plagues and the pillar of fire and cloud. There was already plenty of evidence that He was able. 


Yet their fear of the Egyptians had caused them to lose sight of all of this. 


And that’s just it. They were a fickle lot. And so are we. 


And so were the disciples. Look at this short encounter, after Jesus had fed crowds of five thousand and four thousand people with nothing but a few small loaves of bread and some fish: 


Mark 8:14-21 NIV 

[14] The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. [15] “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” [16] They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” [17] Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. [20]  “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” [21] He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” 

When we panic and respond to situations in fear, we are exactly like Peter walking on the water: we have taken our eyes off Jesus and are distracted by the waves (Matthew 14:28-31).


We have maximised our troubles and minimised our God. 


And that is what compounds and amplifies our fears. 


The way to face our highly pressured situation is with faith in God and who He is, what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do. If we cling to them, we will maximise God and minimise our troubles. 


The result of this will automatically be less stress.  


Proverbs 19:23 NIV 

[23] The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/pro.19.23.NIV)


So the first posture of fear is something we have to overcome. The second posture is Stand. 

 

Stand 

Exodus 14:13 NIV 

[13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.14.13.NIV)


If you have ever seen a spy or a war movie, the greatest heroes are usually those who carry out brave deeds behind enemy lines. Acts of espionage or sabotage that help disrupt enemy progress and change the course of a war are often hailed – and rightly so, as it takes astonishing amounts of bravery to pull them off. 


But what Moses was asking the Israelites to do here was a completely different kind of bravery. 


Try to picture this in your mind. They were by the shores of the Red Sea, in an area of the desert where most of them had never been. In the distance they could see a huge cloud of dust, hear the thundering of hooves, the shouts of the chariot drivers, the crack of whips. With every second it was looming closer and closer.  


They had nowhere to go. They were being hemmed in, ambushed and pursued by the greatest, most powerful army in the world at the time.  


But what did Moses tell them to do? 


To stand. Just stand there. Not run for their lives. Not take their chances in the Red Sea. 


Just stand. 


That takes enormous bravery. Not to mention faith in God and His servant Moses. 


Look what Paul told the church in Ephesus to do. They lived in a pagan city where the success of Gospel ministry had caused a riot (Acts 19:23-41). This is what he told the Ephesian Christians to do: 


Ephesians 6:10-20 NIV 

[10] Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. [11] Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. [12] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. [13] Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. [14] Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, [15] and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. [16] In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. [17] Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. [18] And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. [19] Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. 

This passage is dominated by three verbs: pray, put on (that is, use the piece of the armour mentioned) and, the most frequent of all verbs, stand. 


So yes, Paul did tell the Ephesians to properly equip themselves. And this was not some form of magic incantation to make their day successful, as some might claim today. He was telling them to cling onto the Word of God, to be strong in their faith and to allow the hope of salvation to guide their thinking, among many others. 


But above all, above all that, Paul told the Ephesians to stand. 


Not to retreat. Not to attack. To stand. 


Both Moses and Paul gave the same command not because it was all the Israelites and Ephesians could do, but because it was the best thing they could do. They were take their stand on what they believed, and, most importantly, in Whom they believed, to not allow themselves to be moved from that firm stance, and to give God His place, allowing Him to work on their behalf. 


Nothing Moses could have told the Israelites to do would have made any sense without them standing. None of the parts of the Armour of God make any sense at all without the soldier first standing. 


Because that is what we are called to do: to stand. To stand up for what’s right and true and honourable and just; to not be moved from that stance; to then wait on God proving the rightness of what we are doing: 


Psalms 37:4-6 NIV 

[4] Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. [5] Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: [6] He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.37.4-6.NIV)


Often taking a firm stand isn’t easy. Not everyone appreciates what you are doing. Some will be very quick to mock and disparage you. 


But this is what you are called to do: nothing more, nothing less. 


So if you are facing a time of stress today, make sure you identify areas where you are not willing to compromise your walk with God and take your stand. It won’t make things easier for you, but it will make things clearer. 


Apart from the first two postures of fear and stand, the last posture is See. 

 

See 

Exodus 14:13-14 NIV 

[13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. [14] The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

Here comes a confession: I have only ever been to a theme park once and I have only been on a roller coaster once: in Constanța, Romania. It wasn’t much of a roller coaster. It didn’t turn you upside down so that every scrap of loose change fell out of your pocket onto the ground.


There were other people who were keen to deprive you of your money in other ways.


And neither did it jolt you from side to side. It left that to the train south-east from Bucharest. 


It just took you up to the top of a steep incline and dropped you back down again.  


Not very thrilling, you might think  


Well, when you got to the top, the track started to creak. And then it swayed as the Black Sea breeze caught it. You kind-of wondered if you were about to land at the bottom on the rails or hard on the ground. 


And that was it for roller coasters for me. I haven’t been on another one since. 


One thing I never quite understood is people who pay sometimes not inconsiderable amounts of money to ride a scary roller coaster, but ride the whole thing with their eyes closed. Surely the point of the thing you've just paid for is to actually see if. Otherwise, what are you actually experiencing? 


The Israelites would have been very tempted to close their eyes and try to imagine themselves somewhere else. This was the whitest of white knuckle rides. They were in the worst possible situation and they had no way out at all. 


But then Moses gave them his command. And his command was tough. It was to open their eyes, take a good look and see, properly see what was happening. 


That might sound like a crazy thing to do. However, many of the things we are genuinely afraid of are not even real – they are imagined or perceived. They don’t actually exist in reality.  


Or they are exaggerated out of all proportion when we have the resources to face them. 

Like this incident with Elisha: 


2 Kings 6:15-17 NIV 

[15] When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. [16] “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” [17] And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 

Elisha’s servant was in a blind panic because of the human army that surrounded them. But Elisha knew that a heavenly army was surrounding the human army, and so he wasn’t afraid. 


Let’s look again at the Israelites’ situation. 


They were standing down the barrel of a truly terrifying situation. The mightiest army of their age was charging towards them. There was no escape. They had seemingly been led into a dead end by an eighty year old former fugitive and former shepherd.  


Their situation seemed completely bleak. 


Yet Moses told them to Look at the Egyptians.  


Why? 


Because they would not see them again! 


Now, I’m sure the thought that was going through their head was, ‘Of course not, because they’re going to kill us!’  


But that was not what God had in mind at all. He had in mind to completely change their situation by ridding them of the army that was pursuing them. The Israelites looked at the Egyptian army and they saw only danger and pain and suffering and death. 


God, on the other hand, having shown the Egyptians just how great He was through the Ten Plagues, was about to show the Israelites how great He was through the Egyptians. 


Often we go through suffering that intimidates us. We are afraid to look at bank statements or final demands or medical reports or scans or exam results. We wince even at the thought of looking at them. 


But unless we see and understand the fact, we cannot solve the problem.  


So yes, examining the issues and threats we face can be deeply painful. However, to defeat them we must know our enemy. Do not be afraid to look at them. Be driven to solve these problems by telling yourself that one day you will see them no more. 


But Moses also told them to Look for the deliverance. 


God was going to come to their aid. Their situation might have looked impossible – and humanly-speaking it was, let’s admit it – but God was still able to turn it around.  


As Isaiah prophesied later: 


Isaiah 59:1 NIV 

[1] Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.59.1.NIV)


God was going to prove to the Israelites just who He was. 


But they would have to look for it. 


Often we only see God’s intervention because we are open to it and looking for it. 


I’ll give you an example. 


On the odd occasions when the Northern Lights have been visible over our neighbourhood, we have tried to go outside to see them. It’s not always possible. But sometimes we can. 


I’m always amazed how few of our neighbours are out there watching. We have a field in the middle of our neighbourhood that is as dark as it’s likely to get. It’s as good a place as any to try to see the Northern Lights locally. For some people, all they have to do is leave their houses, cross the road and look upwards to the north. Yet they don’t. 


Often God is at work doing little miracles and intervening in ways we never thought were possible, but, like some of our neighbours, we don’t see them because we aren’t looking.


We aren’t looking because we don’t believe that these things are possible.  


But if we simply open our eyes, they are right there. 


It’s like that in church. Do you know why some people are blessed by a sermon and others are not? It’s because they are concentrated on looking for the blessing, while others are simply there to check off their religious obligations for the week. 


If you think about it, given their circumstances, what Moses was telling them to do was extraordinary. 


And yet the blessing came. God Himself confused and obstructed the might of the Egyptian military machine (Exodus 14:19-20). God Himself parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-22). God Himself drowned the Egyptian army after the Israelites had crossed (Exodus 14:23-28).

 

It was all God. 


Their situation looked utterly impossible. They were hemmed in with no way out. 

 

Yet we need to note that God put them in that situation (Exodus 14:1-4), and God got them out of it. 


There is a striking lesson to be learned there. We see something similar in the New Testament: 


John 9:1-7 NIV 

[1] As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. [2] His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [3]  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. [4] As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. [5] While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” [6] After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. [7] “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.9.1-7.NIV)


Do you see it? This man was born blind and lived in blindness before he met Jesus. Then Jesus healed him of his blindness. He wasn’t blind because he or his parents had sinned. He was blind because Jesus would show God’s power and glory by healing him. 


If we find ourselves in stressful situations, sometimes it is because we did something wrong. We need to face these situations and seek a resolution. There is no use in deflecting or looking for excuses. 


But sometimes we will face stressful situations where we did nothing wrong, where they are not of our own making. They are far from easy or comfortable. Often our desire is to get out of them as soon as we can. 


But should we instead ask if God is being glorified through us? Should we seek His face to see how this can happen? 


Maybe then our stress levels will lower as we will realise God has a plan in it after all, and it’s always for our good (Romans 8:28). 

 

Conclusion 

Exodus 14:13-14 NIV 

[13] Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. [14] The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

Stress can be a killer. That is a medical fact.  


But before it takes our life, it often takes our hope. It is the thief of hope. We lose all perspective. We spiral into ever increasing panic. We catastrophise. Our grip on reality dissolves. We find ourselves facing a situation that is partially of our own making. The more we stress about it, the worse it seems to get, and the worse it seems to get, the more we get stressed about it. 


This is a vicious and destructive cycle that only leads to despair. 


Here in these verses, spoken at a time when the Israelites were facing one of the single toughest moments in the history, we find the solution. This is the secret to arrest the downward spiral and lift us away from it all. 


Look carefully at the three postures. 


Recognise your fears. Acknowledge them. Don’t run from them. Don’t hide from them. You know what they are. God knows that they are. You are fooling no-one. You are afraid. Own it. Bring it to God. Remember who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, what He promised He will do. 


That is the God who is on your side. 


Take your stand. Even if it hurts. Even if your knees are quaking. Even if your bones are shaking. You know what’s right. You know what’s good. Stand on it. And don’t move from it. 


Take a good look around. See your fears approaching. But see them in faith. Your God is greater than them. He is far greater than them. He will make a way. Trust in Him. Believe in Him. These troubles are not forever. You will get through this. 


One day you will never see them again. 


I have a confession to make. In a previous job there were often situations where I became so stressed that I panicked and made bad decisions. Eventually I learned that I could not allow myself to be a prisoner to circumstances. Instead, I would get up from my desk, head to the quietest, most private place I could find (usually a toilet), lock the door, sit in silence and pray. 


Often a way through the stress would become clear. 


That’s why we see these verses: 


Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV 

[3] You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. [4] Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.26.3-4.NIV)


Matthew 11:28-30 NIV 

[28]  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Psalms 55:22 NIV 

[22] Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.55.22.NIV)


1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV 

[6] Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. [7] Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.5.6-7.NIV)


Peace in the midst of stress and pressure does not come to those who have the best plan, the best intelligence or the best street-smarts. 


No, it comes to those who face their fears, take their stand, seek the Lord and stand on His promises and His Word. 


Because He will keep His promises.  


They will face their problems and be victorious. 

 

Prayer  

Lord Jesus, I will not hide my situation from You. It is stressful – so stressful that at times I don’t even want to think about it or face it. But I believe in You. I believe in Your goodness. I believe in Your grace. I believe in Your love. I entrust myself to You. I am looking out for Your salvation. Amen. 


Questions for Contemplation 

  • In what situation did the Israelites find themselves? How does that compare to your situation? 

  • How did Moses tell the Israelites to deal with it? What can you learn from this? 

  • What will you change about your approach to stressful situations? 

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