The Old Testament reading is Exodus 15: 22-27, and this is God’s infallible, His inerrant word.

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. Therefore, it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. 

Our New Testament reading is John 4:7-26. John 4, 7 through 26. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

You can turn back to Exodus chapter 15. This is our sermon text for this morning. Last week, as we looked at the first part of chapter 15, saw how the Israelites sang a wonderful praise song of Thanksgiving to the Lord. They sang God’s praises out of gratitude to Him for the salvation that He had just worked for them. He brought them across the Red Sea on dry land. He destroyed all their enemies, the Egyptians. And in our passage this morning, we learn what takes place over the next few days or several days after that deliverance at the Red Sea. After they left the shores of the Red Sea, it began their journey in the wilderness. And if the Israelites at that time, if they had wanted to keep singing, and if they had had a hymn book at the time, The hymn that they should have chosen to sing after they left the Red Sea is the hymn, Trust and Obey. Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but trust and obey. Those words from that hymn really summarize the lesson that the Lord was teaching the people of Israel in this passage here and really a lesson that the Lord continued to teach the people of Israel throughout their time in the wilderness. The Lord was showing them their need for them to trust in Him, to believe in Him, to entrust themselves to His word, to His promises, to His care, and at the same time He was calling them to obedience, obedience to His word and commandments.

And as Christians as the Lord directs our lives, as he guides us in this world, this world which is to us a wilderness just as the wilderness of the Israelites was the place they were at until they came into the promised land. So in this world we are pilgrims, we are sojourners looking forward to that eternal promised land of heaven that God holds out for us. but the Lord also impresses upon us he wants to teach us this lesson as well over and over again we must learn this lesson over and again and that is trust and obey there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey and so we’ll consider that this morning as we look at this passage, there are three parts of this passage that we will consider.

First, the Lord tested the Israelites. Secondly, the Lord promised to bless the obedience of the Israelites. And thirdly, the Lord showed the Israelites the greatness of His provision for them. So we’ll consider each of those three parts of the passage. 

First of all, the Lord tested the Israelites. Verse 22 says this, Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness ashore. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Somewhat like the Israelites, we here in Reno, we live in a desert environment and it wouldn’t be hard for us to imagine that if we took a three-day journey eastward that we could easily find ourselves in a place where there was no water.

That’s what happened to the Israelites. They left the Red Sea. They are in this wilderness, ashore. The wording of verse 22 isn’t super clear. Either the Israelites went three whole days without water, or else after three days of traveling in the wilderness, they ran out of water. But either way, they were in need of water. Probably in dire need of water. No doubt that they were suffering by now from a searing thirst. And a person can live quite a long time without food, but a person cannot live very long without water, maybe three to five days.

And so the Israelites, here they are in a desert with no water. They are in a very dangerous situation. These are very distressing circumstances. But what made it even worse is that they thought at last they had found water when they came to this place called Marah. But of course they were severely disappointed. They had been marching in the desert wilderness, their canteens were empty, their animals were staggering with exhaustion, their children were crying uncontrollably because of their thirst, and then suddenly the Israelites see this pool or spring of water in the distance.

The sun is causing the surface of the water to shimmer in the rays of the sun. They see the water. They drop their sacks. They run towards it. They’re almost delirious with joy and relief that at last they can quench their searing thirst. But when they stoop down to fill their mouths with that refreshing, cool water, they spit it out in disgust. As soon as it hits their tongues, the water was no good. It was bitter. It was totally undrinkable. Probably it was bitter because of dissolved mineral spirits that for one reason or another had permeated the water.

And so there they were, the Israelites in the wilderness, completely now demoralized, despairing. They are standing next to this spring or pool of water, but they could not drink a drop of it. And how do they respond to this situation? How do the Israelites deal with this very trying circumstance when their lives seemingly are in danger? They’re completely demoralized now that this water turns out to be bitter. What does the passage say? What does the text say? Does it say, And the people remembered all the wondrous works that God had done for them, how he had spared the Israelites from the plague, how he brought them out on the night of the Exodus, and how he parted the Red Sea.

The people remembered God’s promise to bring them into the Promised Land. and they patiently and cheerfully waited upon the Lord to give them all that they needed. If your Bible says that, you’ve got a bad version of the Bible. That’s not what our Bibles say. Instead, it says in verse 24, the people grumbled, they murmured, they complained, they grumbled against Moses. They were overcome with anger, with frustration, with despair, and so they complained. You might even say they became a bunch of whiners. The same congregation who filled the air by the Red Sea with their praises, their worship of God just three days ago. Now they are filling the desert air with their voices, their sounds of complaining and grumbling against the Lord and against Moses. Have you ever praised God on Sunday and then complained on Monday? You don’t have to raise your hand or answer that question. I think we’ve all experienced that. 

So the people grumbled. And in the time-honored tradition of godly people everywhere, they complained to their pastor. They spoke against Moses. They directed their anger towards him. But really, their complaints, although directed towards Moses, their human leader, they were expressing, they were venting their resentments, their anger against the Lord. The only thing that was more bitter there at Marah than the waters was the bitterness that filled the hearts of the people of Israel. And as we’ll see as we go on in Exodus, this is not a one-off event. This is not some kind of isolated incident in which the people were overcome with frustration and they complain and they grumble to the Lord and to Moses, but no, they’ll go on again and again throughout Exodus to complain.

At heart, they were so often an ungrateful, a discontent people, unbelieving, forgetting all that the Lord had done for them, all that he had promised them. And by their complaining here in this passage, what they reveal in their complaining is a fundamental spiritual failure on their part, and that is that they failed to entrust themselves to the Lord. They failed to believe in God. They failed to trust that God would provide for them. That is the reason why the Lord led His people to this specific place in the first place.

He led them to these bitter waters in order to test them, to see if they would trust Him in the midst of adversity. And we know how they performed on that test. They failed miserably. They got an F-. They failed to trust in God. And they failed in many ways. First of all, they failed to trust in God’s provision. It was not so long ago, the night of the Passover, when the Israelites left Egypt, they took their unleavened dough with them. They left with the clothing and the valuables of the Egyptians. In fact, they left Egypt with all that they needed for life. That should have taught them that the Lord would continue to provide for them, that he was not going to let them die of thirst and starvation in the wilderness. Secondly, they failed to trust in God’s promises. God had promised them, the reason why he had brought them out of the land of Egypt was to bring them into the land of Canaan. He had promised the patriarchs that their people would inhabit that land. That was God’s promise, that they would be brought into Canaan.

And yet they’re acting like they’re about to die here in the wilderness as though God had never promised that at all. Thirdly, they failed to trust in God’s wisdom. And from a purely human perspective, as we consider this, it seems very foolish. Why in the world would the Lord lead over one million thirsty people through a dry wilderness for three days only to bring them to a place where the water was undrinkable? And so when they’re murmuring, they’re grumbling against Moses, against the Lord, they are calling into question, they are doubting the wisdom of God.

They didn’t think he knew what he was doing. And as we read about the Israelites, as we hear how they responded to this situation, it’s very easy for us today to look back on them and say, how could they possibly be so foolish? How could they be so forgetful? How could they fail to trust in the Lord? It was not so long ago that God showed them the power of His might in delivering them from Egypt. The plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the way He provided for them on the way out of Egypt.

How could they fail to trust in God, whose very presence was with them in the pillar of cloud and fire? How could they fail to trust in Him when these miracles, these acts of God on their behalf were so fresh on their minds? But we would be no different because we betray as well a basic mistrust, a failure to believe in God and in his promises to us. We fail to trust in God’s provision. It’s called worry, anxiety, fear. The Israelites expressed their anxiety over what they would drink, they say in verse 24, what shall we drink? What shall we drink? 

Many, many centuries later, the very Lord who heard these unbelieving words expressed by the Israelites in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, that very same Lord, he said to his disciples, therefore, do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Those are words that Jesus speaks to you and me.

That’s the promise that God gives to us through His Son. Do not worry, do not be anxious. You will be provided for, and yet, how often have you worried? How will I pay the bills? How will I make ends meet? How will I make enough money to provide for my family? And when you worry, you are anxious. When you are anxious, you forget that you are a child of God, a child of your Heavenly Father. He knows what you need. He knows your needs even before you become aware of them. And He promises that He will give you all that you need for life in this world.

Like the Israelites, we also fail to trust in the promises of God. And the one promise of God, the overarching promise that should be most precious to us in times of fear or times that are distressing, is the one promise we forget, and that is this, that God promises that He will work out all things for our good. And so, so often you and I find ourselves in circumstances that are painful, that are distressing and we think to ourselves, or we cry out perhaps, why Lord? Why am I going through this? Why are you allowing me to suffer in this way? Why do you not take this affliction from me? Why am I dealing with this? Oh Lord, you are powerful, you can take away this suffering. But in every situation no matter how grievous, no matter how painful, no matter how stressful, no matter how frightening, God promises you, as one who belongs to Jesus Christ, His Son, that He is at work in those circumstances, in those particular circumstances, He is at work for your good, for your everlasting good, for your eternal happiness.

And this promise of God is similar, we could relate to the fact that God was with his people in this great pillar of cloud or this pillar of fire. It was a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. All the Israelites had to do was to look up in the sky and see that the Lord was with them. The presence of God was there. And they would be assured that God has their good in mind. He is there with them. He brought them to this place. And all you and I have to do is to remember that promise.

That promise is with us wherever we go, even in a place of bitterness, a place of suffering. I am working on this too. I’m working in these circumstances, even these circumstances for your good, to do you good, to bless you. And so no matter where you are right now, no matter what the circumstances of your life are right now, no matter how difficult they are, no matter how far from ideal they are, perhaps you are in a place that is called Mara. You are in a place where there is much bitterness, much distress, but no matter, the Lord and His promise is there with you.

He is working out His loving and gracious and holy purposes for you in your circumstances where you are today. And like the Israelites, we also fail to trust in the wisdom of God. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that just don’t make any sense. They are perplexing. Bewildering. Why is this happening to me? I don’t understand. Perhaps the Lord closes the door to a job that would have been perfect for you. Or maybe you’ve saved enough money for that $3,000 car repair, and then the next day you go to the dentist and find out you need $4,000 worth of dental work.

And you think, why, Lord? Why is this happening to me? It makes no sense. And of course, we feel that all the more intensely when a far worse tragedy strikes us. When a loved one dies, a loved one dies unexpectedly. It seems so inexplicable. Why? Why now? Why her? 

One of the saddest news stories I ever remember reading was about a young soldier who had just returned to his base up in Alaska. And he had just finished serving a tour of duty. I forget if it was Afghanistan or Iraq, but someplace where there was war. And he had survived that. And he got back to the base. And just a few days or weeks after returning back to the safety of the base, his car hit a moose. And he was killed. And it’s hard to imagine trying to process that. It makes some sense that a soldier would be killed in a combat zone. But to be killed by a moose when you come back to the base? Surely his family was asking, God, why? Why would you allow this? Why would you bring him safely through a war zone only to have him die in this way?

But God is infinite in wisdom. He is perfect in wisdom. And He always chooses the very best means to achieve the very best ends. Our good, His glory. And so, the circumstances that we find ourselves in, the things that happen to us, all the affairs of life, this is all the outworking of God’s perfect purpose, His plan for us. A plan that is perfect in every way. God had a reason for bringing the Israelites to Marah. It seems so illogical, so inexplicable, but God had a reason for it.

And He has a reason for everything. that he brings into your life, for every place where he leads you, for all the difficult, bewildering situations that he brings you in at times, he has a purpose for that. The Israelites show us what distrust and unbelief look like, but Moses, he is a bright, shining example in this passage of what faith and trust look like. First of all, unlike the Israelites, he doesn’t murmur, he doesn’t complain and grumble, but he prays. He prays. One author said, Moses’ one prayer of faith accomplished more than all the complaining of the Israelites. And he didn’t question God’s wisdom. After he prayed, the Lord showed him a log, or perhaps a tree, and he told him to throw it into the water. Moses didn’t say, Why should I do that? What will the log do? How will this help the water? But he obeyed God’s command. And once the log hit the water, the water became sweet. It was no longer bitter. The Israelites could drink of it. Truly that log became a tree of life to the Israelites that day. 

But as we read this passage, and we consider it and consider our lives in the light of it, we see that this passage is a little too much like a mirror that reflects our own failure to believe and to trust. We see here an all too clear reflection of our own failure to trust in God. But the good news is that there is a savior for those who fail to trust in God as we should. Part of the good news of the gospel is not just that Jesus died for our sins, of course that is the heart of the gospel that God, that Jesus died for us, but part of the gospel is that Jesus also lived for us. He lived the perfect life that you and I have failed to live. And his life was a life of perfect obedience to the will of God, beginning with perfect trust.

And His Heavenly Father in all circumstances. Jesus never once failed to commit Himself wholly to the care of His Father. He was never worried. He was never fretful. He never gave up hope. He never once questioned the wisdom of God. And the Gospel tells us that by faith in Jesus Christ, this perfect obedience on the part of Christ, His perfect trust in God, this is counted as your very own and as though you yourself have trusted in the Lord at all times. And at the same time, there is forgiveness for you and for me when we are like the Israelites, when we fail to trust in the Lord.

So after the Lord tested the Israelites, he promised to bless their obedience. After the Lord made the water sweet and drinkable with this log that Moses threw into it, we read this in verse 26, and this is the Lord’s words to Israel. If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God and do that which is right in his eyes and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians for I am the Lord your healer. 

And so the issue here in this verse is a question of obedience. Will the Israelites, will they obey the commandments of the Lord? Will they do what he commanded them to do? Will they be blessed in that? Or will they disobey and forfeit that blessing? We have to read further on in the Old Testament to find out what the answer to that is, but I know that you know the answer already. 

The history of Israel in the Old Testament is a history of unbelief, of disobedience, of failing to keep the commandments of the Lord. But the Lord calls them to obedience here, and the obedience that He calls them to has everything to do with the trust that the Israelites just failed to demonstrate in the Lord. Because the obedience that God calls His people to is an obedience that begins with trust, it begins with faith, it begins with entrusting ourselves to Him as our God. The Lord says that they are to diligently listen to the voice of God. They are to give ear to His commandments. That is an act of faith. Believing that these are from the Lord. That He knows that they are good for us. That I trust in His Word and then obey out of that trust. And so, you and I, we must exercise trust in the Lord and in His Word in order to render Him that obedience that He requires of us.

And so that same distrust that led the Israelites to grumble and complain against the Lord, it would also lead them to disobey God’s commandments. And so that’s why God calls for their obedience right after He tests their trust in Him. And if they would obey God, God promises them that they would not be afflicted with the same plagues that He afflicted the Egyptians with. And the reason was because the Lord was their healer. If the God or if the Israelites would obey the word of the Lord, they would obey his commandments, he would bless them by sparing them the plagues and the diseases that he placed on the Egyptians that otherwise the Israelites would deserve as well.

And so God promises the Israelites here that he would bless their obedience and the same is true for us. God makes the same promise to us today. He promises to bless obedience. Now that doesn’t mean that the obedience that you and I render to God by His grace, that this somehow earns or merits His favor or blessing. It’s not as though we put God in our debt by obedience, but what this passage is saying is that God graciously blesses those who seek to obey Him, not on the basis of merit or grace, or not on the basis of merit or works, but on the basis of grace.

This is a covenant promise of covenant blessing to his covenant people for obedience to his covenant demands. And that covenant is a covenant of grace. It is a covenant of grace. It was by grace that the Israelites were in this covenant with God in the first place. And it was only by the grace of God that they could render to God that obedience that he requires of them. and the same is true for you and me and Jesus Christ the obedience that God requires of us this is a fruit of his grace and God is gracious and blessing that obedience nevertheless what God says is obey me and I will bless you you will be blessed in that and what is that blessing that God promises for obedience to his commandments by faith in Christ it is not a promise similar to the promise that God made to the Israelites here God does not promise that he will spare us from disease or from sickness or from suffering but the blessing of God is spiritual the blessing that God promises to give us as we by his grace walk in obedience to his commandments is the blessing of the enjoyment of his goodness and grace and favor having his face shine upon us knowing that we are his and that he is ours Our catechism speaks of these spiritual blessings that God pours out upon us as we walk in obedience to his commands by his grace, the assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, grace and perseverance therein to the end.

And so we are justified by the grace of God, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from works, apart from obedience, but having been brought to Christ, having been adopted as the children of God, God calls us to obey Him, He gives us the grace and the will to do so, and He promises, I will bless that obedience. And so the Lord promised to bless the obedience of the Israelites. Thirdly, the Lord showed them the greatness of His provision for them. So look at verse 27. It says, Then they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

So it was God’s will to bring them to a better place. Even though the water was made sweet, Mara was still in some way a place of bitterness for the Israelites, but God had a better place in mind for them. And he leads them to this place called Elim. And we are told very specifically that there were 12 palm trees, or I’m sorry, 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees. Now, why is that detail included? Why is it important for us to know exactly how many springs of water, how many palm trees were there? Well, I believe that there were literally 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees there, but these numbers are symbolic. They are representative of a spiritual truth, and that is this. that God is a God who gives in abundance. He gives in fullness. Twelve and seventy are numbers that communicate the idea of abundance. And so the point of these numbers is that there was more than enough water to provide for the Israelites in their number. The place there was more than sufficient to sustain them for as many days as they would camp there.

There was an abundance of water there. and that gets us to an even greater significance of Elim in this passage, and that is this, that this place represents the super abundance, the overflowing greatness of the blessing of God, of the grace of God, of the life of God that he gives to his people. We might use the words of Psalm 23 at Elim, “the cup of the Israelites runneth over”. It was not just full, it was running over. Or in the words of Jesus, Elim was their good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, that was put into their lap.

And it is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who promises to give us not just life, but abundant life – super abundant life. He says in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me”, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”. And this is the true water that God gives to us as his people. The water that alone can quench the thirst of our souls, the life, the joy, the peace that our hearts long for that can only be found in the Son of God in Jesus Christ. And, it’s just just as the Israelites found that in Elim there was not just a trickle of water there was not even just sufficient water but there was an abundance of water twelve springs of water so those who are led by the grace of God to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ find in him rivers rivers of living water not a cup or two the flowing water abundant water to satisfy our thirst and more.

And that living water is there for you now to satisfy your soul’s thirst. Because just like the Israelites then, we are a people who are pilgrims in this world. We are making our journey to the promised lands. And like the Israelites then, we often encounter places in this life that we could call Mara, places of bitterness and distress. There is so much in this sad and fallen world that is bitter. All the evil things that men and women do. The sorrow and pain of disease and death. The grief of broken relationships. We live in a world where at times it seems the forces of ungodliness and unrighteousness triumph. But even in this bitter and fallen world, Jesus is an oasis where you can go to be filled with life-giving waters. And there is no other source of this abundant life, these flowing rivers of life, than in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we read from John chapter 4, that passage where Jesus speaks with this Samaritan woman at the well. He offered this woman this very same life-giving water. He even calls it living water. He says in verse 14 of John 4, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. 

Jesus knew this woman. He knew that her heart was thirsty for this water of life that she was seeking for, looking for, seeking to quench her thirst with the things of this world. And she had been seeking that life in men, but her heart’s thirst was never satisfied. She had had five husbands, and now she had another man who was not her husband. And perhaps she thought to herself at some point, this last relationship, this fifth husband that I’ve had, this has left me empty, but maybe things will be different with this new one, with this new man. Maybe this is the man who will finally fulfill the longing of my heart. But of course, just like before, because she sought to fill her heart’s desire in a creature, in a man, she sought that which only Christ could give her.

The hope for living water became for her bitterness. And that is true for whatever it is in this world – that a person might look to satisfy their heart’s thirst for living water. It could be like the woman at the well, a relationship, or it could be our idea of success, or it could be simply pleasure or wealth. And from a distance, just like the waters of Mara seem to the Israelites to be pools of refreshing, cool water, so these things to us seem to be like life-giving sources.

I will fill my hearts with joy and contentment only after I make so much money, or if I have this perfect relationship, or if I can only experience these things in this world. But then after we’ve drunk from these things, seeking to quench the thirst of our hearts, we’re left instead, not with fulfillment, but with emptiness, perhaps even disappointment and bitterness. And maybe your own heart today is thirsting for the living water that only Christ can give. 

Maybe you have been drinking deeply from the wells of the waters of this world, and they have become so unsatisfying to you. They have become even bitterness to you. will come to Jesus, put your hope in Him, come to the one who is the source of true life, true waters, and He will give you that water that becomes a spring of water, welling up within to eternal life. And if Jesus is the source of living waters in this life, how much more will He be that for you and me in the life to come? because now we drink of these waters by faith in Christ and it satisfies, but how much more will your heart be satisfied when on that day of glory you are in the presence of Jesus himself?

How much sweeter will your communion with Christ be then when you have no more sin? When you are raised up in a body that is immortal and incorruptible, how much greater will the love of Jesus flood your hearts when you see his face, when you hear his voice speaking to you. I imagine to the Israelites that after they left Marah and came to Elim, Elim must have seemed like a paradise to them compared to that place of bitterness. Well, the glory that Jesus is preparing for you and me will be filled with such life, such joy, such peace, such unspeakable blessedness that even the most blessed moments and times in this life will seem like bitterness in comparison to what is in store. And keep this hope before you. Trust in the Lord. Trust in Him and all of His dealings with you because He is leading you. He is guiding you. Your final destination is not in this world. It’s not in a better life in this world, but your final destination is in that glory that He is preparing for you. In this world, there are so many places that we could call “mara”, bitterness that the Lord is preparing for us a glory that will far outweigh all the blessings and joys that we may experience in this life. It will make all the experiences of bitterness and suffering seem like light momentary afflictions. And there in the presence of Christ, we will never be thirsty again forever. Let’s pray.

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