Some problems require immediate action. Others require us to stop trying to fix everything and give God time to work.
Knowing the difference is one of the great challenges of the Christian life.
At the Red Sea, the Israelites were understandably terrified. Pharaoh’s army was closing in behind them. The sea blocked the way ahead. There was no escape route, and there was nothing they could do to defeat the Egyptian army.
Their instinct was to panic.
Moses gave them very different instructions:
“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today…. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13–14 NIV).
That brings us to the fifth principle in Robert J. Morgan’s The Red Sea Rules and the fifth lesson in my Red Sea Rules question-based Bible study:
Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work.
Panic Rarely Improves a Situation
When we become frightened, we feel an urgent need to do something.
Send the email.
Make the phone call.
Confront the person.
Quit the job.
Move the money.
Make the decision.
Fix it now.
Sometimes immediate action is necessary. But fear is not particularly good at deciding when.
Fear tells us, “You have to do something right now.” Faith sometimes says, “You don’t have enough information yet. Wait.”
The Israelites certainly wanted to do something. In fact, they began talking about going back to Egypt. They told Moses it would have been better to remain slaves than to die in the wilderness.
Think about that.
They were so frightened by what might happen that they were ready to return voluntarily to the slavery from which God had miraculously delivered them.
Panic does that.
It can make yesterday’s slavery look better than tomorrow’s uncertainty.
Stand Still
Moses’ command must have sounded ridiculous.
Stand still?
Pharaoh is coming!
Yet Moses knew something the people had forgotten: this battle belonged to God.
“The LORD will fight for you.”
That doesn’t mean Christians should always be passive. In fact, the very next part of the Red Sea story emphasizes action. God tells Israel to move forward. There is a time to stand still, and there is a time to move.
But before Israel could move forward in faith, they needed to stop moving backward in fear.
Sometimes we need to do the same.
We need to stop reacting. Stop imagining the worst. Stop trying to manipulate circumstances. Stop demanding an immediate solution.
Give God some room to work.
Waiting Is Not Doing Nothing
We often think of waiting as wasted time.
God doesn’t.
Much of the Christian life involves waiting. Abraham waited for a son. Joseph waited in prison. Moses spent years in Midian. David was anointed king and then spent years running from Saul. The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit.
God is rarely in as much of a hurry as we are.
Waiting on God is not the same as doing nothing. Biblical waiting is active trust. We continue doing what we know to do while refusing to run ahead of God.
Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (NIV).
Notice that waiting requires strength.
It sometimes takes more faith to wait than to act.
Give God Time to Work
One reason waiting is difficult is that we cannot see what God is doing.
Imagine being an Israelite during those moments beside the Red Sea. Nothing visible had changed. The sea was still there. Pharaoh was still coming. They had no idea how God could possibly keep His promise.
But their inability to see a solution did not mean God didn’t have one.
That distinction can make an enormous difference in our lives.
“I don’t see a way” is not the same as “There is no way.”
“I don’t know what God is doing” is not the same as “God isn’t doing anything.”
“I haven’t received an answer yet” is not the same as “God isn’t going to answer.”
We see the moment.
God sees the whole story.
The study repeatedly returns to this perspective: the God who allowed Israel to arrive at this impossible place had not lost control of what was happening.
Don’t Make Permanent Decisions in Moments of Panic
There is a practical lesson here that can save us a great deal of grief.
When you are frightened, angry, exhausted, or overwhelmed, be very careful about making major decisions.
Fear narrows our vision. We become desperate for immediate relief and can easily trade something valuable tomorrow for relief today.
Israel was ready to trade freedom for slavery because slavery suddenly felt safer.
We can do something similar. We walk away from a relationship too quickly. We quit something we should continue. We say something we cannot take back. We make a financial decision simply because we want the anxiety to stop.
Sometimes wisdom says, “Not today.”
Pray.
Sleep.
Seek counsel.
Wait.
Give God time to work.
Confidence Is Not Confidence in the Outcome
There is another important distinction.
Christian confidence does not mean we know exactly how everything will turn out.
Israel didn’t.
Moses didn’t tell them, “Don’t worry. In a few minutes God is going to split the Red Sea.”
He simply told them to trust the Lord.
Our confidence is not ultimately in a particular outcome. It is in a particular Person.
We don’t always know whether the job will work out, whether the relationship will be restored, whether the door will open, or whether circumstances will change the way we hope.
But we know God.
That is enough for the next step.
Be Still Long Enough to See What God Does
There is a beautiful phrase in Exodus 14:13:
“Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.”
They were about to see something they would talk about for generations.
But first they had to stand there.
Imagine what they would have missed if they had run back toward Egypt.
Sometimes we are so desperate to escape the place where we are that we never consider what God might want to show us there.
Perhaps you are waiting today. You have prayed, but nothing seems to be changing. You have done what you know to do. You cannot see the next step.
Then perhaps today’s assignment is not to solve the whole problem.
Stay calm.
Stay confident.
Keep doing what you know is right.
And give God time to work.
Study Red Sea Rules With Your Group
This article is based on Lesson 5 of my Red Sea Rules: A Question-Based Bible Study Guide, a 10-session study based on Robert J. Morgan’s The Red Sea Rules and the events of Exodus 14–15.
Each lesson uses Scripture, discussion questions, practical application, and insights from respected Christian teachers to help groups talk honestly about trusting God through difficult circumstances.
Red Sea Rules is available now on Amazon.
You can also learn more about the study and access it through Good Questions Have Groups Talking:
Next in the series: When You Don’t Know What to Do, Take the Next Logical Step by Faith
