It’s Sunday night. How you feeling about the week ahead?

Are you groaning?

Many people in our community are doing just that after the sudden death a week ago of an 18-year old, a boy whose life and whose family’s life are weaved into the fabric of our church and our schools and our city. It’s a huge blow, and it doesn’t make sense, and people are hurting.

At the beginning of Exodus, the people of Israel were also groaning about their situation. Here’s Exodus 2:23-25:

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”

Maybe you’re in a similar situation this week. You’re groaning under the unimaginable weight of a tragedy. You’re fighting to save the relationship. You’re struggling to beat the addiction. You’ve been turned down for so many jobs. You’re seeing yet another doctor. You’re pleading for your kid.

It’s been many days, many months, many years. You’re crying out for help.

God hears the groanings of his children, even the ones too deep for words. He sees your plight and he knows exactly where you are and what you’re battling.

Not only does he hear and see and know, he remembers. He remembers that you are his child. Just like he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he remembers his new covenant with you, the covenant that says if you trust in him, he will remember your sins no more (nice reversal there).

He is our God and we are his people by grace alone, though faith alone, in Christ alone - no matter what may come. 

That’s what he remembers, and that’s what he acts on, in the fullness of his time.

For Israel, he raised up Moses to lead them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea to the Promised Land.

Your dry-land pathway through your Red Sea may not be clear. We don’t know yet how God will redeem your current circumstance.

But:

If you wonder if anyone hears,

If you feel like no one sees,

If you think no one knows,

Scripture tell us: God hears. God sees. And God knows.

Take comfort in this beautiful truth. He remembers his covenant, which he cannot break, with you. Yes, you.

Grace and peace to you in the week ahead.