God's Mercy While Treading Water

“Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.” (Ne 9:19 AV)

Have you ever felt like your life is in a holding pattern?  Ever felt like your church is treading water?  It appears as though there is no meaning behind anything nor any conclusive direction to anything.  From our perspective, it is a big waste of time.  There are no significant goals.  No real point to anything.  We are in survival mode.  There is no prosperity.  But there isn’t poverty either.  Just boring old life with nothing real significant going on.

It is at these times when we are tempted to think that maybe God has put us on a shelf with no real future ahead of us.  We begin to think that God has abandon us because we have gone so far with our faith or sin that there is no future growth possible.  We begin to wonder if all there is left is to coast to the end of life without any meaningful goals yet to fulfill.  If we are not careful, we will begin to think that God simply doesn’t care.  We may even go so far as to believe that God doesn’t care.

Part of the wilderness wandering was chastisement for not trusting God deeply enough to take Canaan.  The generation which had the first opportunity failed to believe the LORD and chaffed at God’s encouragement towards faith.  So, the LORD chastened them with 40 years wandering.  But more important than that, the 40 years wandering also gave them experience to learn the faith they said they lacked.  God’s unlimited mercy met their every need!  Even the ones they didn’t know they had!  No matter how stuck in the mud we might feel, God’s mercy is there.  No matter how much treading of water we might feel we are treading, God’s mercy is there!  Even as the old generation died off so that a new and courageous one could build the nation, God’s mercy was there!