Exodus 6:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

It’s been said: “It’s not the situation. It’s your reaction to the situation.” The situation you are in does not define the future, though your reaction to the situation reveals Who you rely on. In chapter 5, we saw that the Pharaoh rejected the message and made the bondage even more difficult on the Hebrews. The elders of Israel then laid the blame for that on Moses and Aaron. Moses went to God with it. Why? Because He knew the source. Yet I wonder what this looked like to Moses? The fulfillment of God’s promise must have seemed so far away. I know that there are times when you are waiting on the Lord and the answer seems so far away … too distant. Sometimes when we are praying for something, the answer to that prayer is a lot closer than we realize.

I was praying for a Calvary Chapel to be planted in Birmingham for years as I was serving as an assisting pastor in North Carolina. I never thought that I would be the one planting that Calvary Chapel in Birmingham. The point is that the answer to that prayer lay a lot closer to home than I realized. My vision was limited … I couldn’t see how it was going to happen. God, however, knew the means and the way and so, somehow as I was praying, I was aligning myself with the will of God … and I didn’t even know it.

We tend to depend on what we can experience with our hands and in front of our eyes and diminish the importance of things that are far away or on the perimeter of our vision. The first time I played the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas I was astonished, while driving through Texas, at how far I could see down the road. I could see for miles … which made the drive seem crazy long. It was like I could see our destination in the distance, but it was still hours away. Sometimes in life, it seems like we are surrounded by hills and our vision is limited, but then when the hills go flat for a few miles, we see the whole picture.

It’s easy to get freaked out when surrounded by hills. Valleys can be dark and mountaintops deceiving, but God sees the whole picture. God knows these things and has things planned out before we even walk the path. That means God knows the needs of Calvary Chapel Birmingham and what it’s going to take to keep this church running and I don’t have to stress about it. That’s a word for myself. Now here’s a word for you. Perhaps you have something in your life … a situation or something that you worry about. Know that God has it in His hands and the answer is closer than you realize.