Jesus doesn’t always wrap your present in pretty paper.

When the children of Israel were crossing the Red Sea, everyone didn’t go in at the same time. Some were going in, others were in the middle of it, and some were coming out.

Even when you don’t see or feel God, He’s working. Hard times and sad times never slow God down. He just keeps being God. 

America is in a mess. But our God still works miracles in the middle of messes. Stop looking for failure and fear. Tell the devil that you didn’t start to give up and that you are looking for God to show up.

When there was a horrible famine, Elijah went up to the top of a mountain and prayed. He asks his servant if he sees anything yet. The servant replies with, “I see dead bodies and smell rotten flesh. All I see is a mess.”

“Don’t you look at the mess,” Elijah says, “I’m praying for it to rain. Look unto the hills from where our help comes from. Go look again.”

If you keep looking at the mess, you’re going to break. But, if you lift your eyes and look, there is a miracle in this mess.

Don’t give up. Don’t you throw in the towel. There is a God and He doesn’t always wrap your present in pretty paper and top it with a bow. Sometimes, He gives you your miracle right in the middle of a mess. When it looks like it can get any worse, God has a pattern throughout time of providing a miracle in the midst of a mess.

David killed a bear and a lion. He killed Goliath. Those enemies he would never have to deal with again. But David would have to contend with Saul for years until God said it was over. You may have a Saul in your life, something in your past that you’ve had to deal with for a long time. But don’t worry. It’s not going to break you. It won’t destroy you. Don’t give it power over you. 

Right in the middle of the mess don’t sit down. Go forward. Read your Bible. Pray. Make a commitment to God. Worship and fight. Serve the Lord. Go forward! God will make a way for you. God doesn’t stop being God in messes. I don’t know what your mess is, but I know He’s a big God.

Go back and look one more time. God has not forgotten you.

Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fire wanting to see the mess the three Hebrew boys were in, but when he looked down into the fire, he saw a miracle. The world thinks that just because their home, their finances, and their nerves are a mess, they can look into our lives and see that same mess. But when they look into our lives they aren’t going to see a mess, but a miracle.

God took care of Joseph, He took care of the children of Israel, He took care of Peter when he needed money, He took care of Jonah in the belly of the whale, God will take care of you.

Go look again. There’s a miracle somewhere in that mess.

—Pastor Anthony Wynn

Scriptures

• Hebrews 11:6
• Psalm 73:28
• Proverbs 23:18
• Exodus 14:13
• Daniel 3:22
• 2 Corinthians 4:8-9