Out of Egypt

When you need to remember — that You're still my Shepherd.

You can be in the long after-effects of leaving something — a relationship, a job, a habit, a way of thinking — and still feel the pull of where you came from. Egypt does not stop calling just because you left it. And the wilderness on the other side does not always feel like deliverance; sometimes it feels like exposure. You do not need to forget where you came from. You need to remember what the presence of God did to creation when His people walked out of Egypt — and that the same Presence is with you now.

This short prayer is built on one big idea: when God's people moved, creation responded. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion." Not "Israel went looking for God." "Judah became His sanctuary." The act of leaving Egypt was itself an act of becoming His. Then comes the imagery that should rearrange how you see your wilderness: "The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." The Red Sea and the Jordan moved out of the way. Mountains and hills skipped, like newborn animals. Then the rhetorical question: "What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little hills, like lambs?" The answer is in the next verse: "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters." Creation responded to the Presence the people were walking with. The Presence that turned a rock into a pool is the same Presence walking with you now. The Egypt you left does not get to call you back, and the wilderness you are crossing does not get to ail what God has already moved through.

• Right now, name out loud one "Egypt" you have left — and one place where you need His Presence to turn rock into pool. • Write this down: "What is still calling me back to where I used to live, and what has the Presence already done that I have stopped remembering?" • Repeat this line when the wilderness feels exposed: "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord."

Stop. Breathe. Let mountains skipping like lambs in front of God be true for the wilderness you are crossing. Then tell Him exactly where you need rock turned to pool — out loud if you can.

God, when Your people walked out of Egypt, even the sea moved out of the way. The same Presence walks with me now, in the wilderness I have not yet finished crossing. Turn the rock in front of me into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain. Keep me from looking back at Egypt as if leaving it was a mistake. Let me become Your sanctuary in motion — Your dominion in the place You have moved me into. You're still my Shepherd.

Where His Presence walks, even the rocks open into water.