Jul 21 - POWER - Number 11:21-23

²¹ But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot; and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! ²² Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?” ²³ The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

Numbers 21

 

This past Sunday, you heard the testimonies from our mission trip. The key story involved driving an hour back into nowhere … and then getting off the road and driving more two miles deep into a remote holler.

 

The sound of sheer silence and peace should have been what greeted us. Instead, it was the whoosh of a rapidly deflating tire.

 

·         Will the spare have air?

·         Will it hold up on the rugged drive back to the main road?

·         Which direction do we turn for a new tire when civilization is an hour (if not hours away)?

 

I confess that I was asking practical question. I was busy using human wisdom when a youth on our team began leading us in prayer. And just about as soon as he said, “Amen,” a truck came down the road and had to stop because there sat our team’s immobile van.

 

I’d been busy trying to figure out practical solutions. God had been busy answering prayer. In the middle of absolute nowhere, this truck had an air compressor and the driver had a plug kit. Within eight minutes of our youth praying, the tire was fixed!

 

That’s the story in our lesson for today too. The people of Israel were hungry (again!) and Moses had been busy trying to figure out practical solutions.

 

·         We’re in the middle of nowhere.

·         Are there enough flocks and herds for meat?

·         How am I supposed to feed them?

 

Meanwhile God was busy listening to their cry. He was, indeed, beginning to answer their prayer. The Lord was responding to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?”

 

Bread in the wilderness. Meat for “six hundred thousand on foot.” Tire patch kits at the end of a remote holler. As someone on our Mission Team said, “Why aren’t we surprised when God shows up on a Mission Trip, but we constantly forget to look for him in our day-to-day.”

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who wants

to be a “looker”

(sure, I’d like to be more

Handsome – a “looker)

but I’ll settle for being

reminded to look for God’s

presence more readily)