FEBRUARY 1 "FAITH BY NECESSITY"

     Verse 31 "And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant."   Faith by Necessity, they were forced to either believe or die.  How often in our walk with God will be be forced into situations that we would never have engineered (as long as we were in our right mind) and come to a place where either I believe here or I die. The faith that came, came by a situation that was forced on the Israelite s. Verse 31 is a longgggggg way from the beatings, the..."Moses why don't you leave us alone"....things are only getting worse, why don't you and your God leave us alone...".  Sometimes it's a long journey from..."God you're not helping to and then I saw the hand of God and put my trust and faith in him".  As a matter of a fact, it's such a long journey, sometimes people don't make it! Point is. trials don't always force faith by necessity but rather, at times, force people outside of the kingdom of God.  And we might be quick to say, "way to go God.., look what you've done, they've backslidden"; as we can often be tempted to do when going through gruesome trials...but the question is, do you? There's a big difference between being tempted to do something and actually doing it.  I don't think anyone will ever be able to point the finger at God and say, "you're trials are the reason I backslid". Unfortunately, whether we want to admit it or not, trials are simply a means often of weeding out the tares from the wheat, the sheep from the goats. God puts us in situations where we are only left with two choices, "believe in me here or walk away". He did it to the rich man, he did it to Peter, he did it to the large crowds and he did it here in our text.  Each morning we wake in a trial, we must make a conscious decision, do I believe God for another day or do I stop praying and walk away, faith by necessity, we either keep believing or we die. It is one thing to be tempted, as we are all tempted in the same manner, but it is another thing to actually do it.  Where are you today? Will you make it to Verse 31? "And when the Israelite saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant."   or will you say, " I have no choice but to believe or I die..."FAITH BY NECESSITY".

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