Nate Holdridge

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Not Over. Not Around. God Takes You Through

“Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” (Psalm 77:19, ESV)

What to do? Pinned against the Red Sea, the Egyptian army bearing down upon us, what do we do? We have been marvelously helped by God, until now. He has poured down plague after plague upon the Egyptians and their gods and now we are free of Egypt. But now their armies are bearing down upon us. The fire of God is protecting us, for the moment at least, but what are we to do? We are trapped on all sides. It seems as if we’ll drown in the sea in front of us. There is no way forward. We will surely die.

Have you ever felt such despair? Have you ever felt there is no logical way forward? God’s way, according to the Psalm, was through the sea. Through it. Not over it, as in a boating adventure. Not around it, as in a hiking adventure. But through it. No one’s way is ever through it, except God’s. Only He can take us through the thing, through the Red Sea, through that which we are unable, in our human nature, to go through. But with God there is a way forward.

God made a path for Israel through the great waters. Their footprints, at least for a moment, were seen, but God’s were not. He simply opened a way for them and they walked through it.

I have been thinking of this concept recently as I weigh it against the decisions and obstacles in front of me. What is my way forward? How do I get around or over this? But often it is neither around or over. He will take me through. Through.

The Shepherd’s Psalm comes to mind. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). I am not brought around or over that valley, but through it. God is always bringing me through.

God is a God who faces the obstacles. He does not turn. He does not fear. He never runs away and He never panics. Unafraid, He moves through. He makes a way. Impossibly, He opens up a path where no path has ever existed.

It is with this in mind that we must stand firm in order to see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13). He has paths we know not of. They are the “through paths,” the ways that defy human logic and brainpower, ways that are beyond us.

Let Him take you through. Wait for His through path. Hold fast to your faith and integrity. Watch Him make a way where there is no way.