Beloved, I am a big tea drinker.
There are six main types of tea — White, Green, Yellow, Oolong, Black, and Pu-erh.
Each one tastes different not because it comes from a different plant,
but because of what it has been through.
The color, the fragrance, the depth — are all the result of the process:
rolled, oxidized, steamed, roasted, or pan-fired.
The more a tea leaf endures, the darker, richer, and more complex the flavor becomes.
When you drink a cup of loose-leaf tea,
You are not just tasting flavor, you are tasting history.
You are experiencing the leaf’s journey — what it has endured,
Where it came from, and how it survived.
Every sip is a testimony!
Now imagine if our lives were like that…
If our journeys, our hurdles, our processes were steeped into us
— the heartbreaks and healing, the setbacks and second chances.
What if the boiling waters of life drew out the aroma of grace in us?
What if our anxieties became fragrant prayers,
and our scars were the sacred reminders that we have survived?
This is where we find Moses in Exodus 14 –
standing on the shoreline, steam rising all around him.
In front of him: a wall of water.
Behind him: an army.
In the middle: weary people, waiting and wondering what happens next.
Moses feels what so many of us feel — exposed, uncertain, unfit, and out of options.
And in that moment, God does not send a long sermon.
God sends a sentence:
“Why are you crying out to Me? Lift your rod, stretch out your hand, and move forward.”
That is, it.
No thunder. No theatrics. Just clarity!
Beloved, when everything around you feels like chaos,
sometimes God’s first miracle is resetting your focus.
Lifting the rod was Moses remembering God’s authority.
Stretching out his hand was trusting God’s word. And stepping forward — that was faith in motion!
So today, family, as the waters boil around you, as the ‘Pharaoh-like’ systems of this world press in, remember what you have been through has flavor, and your process has purpose.
Lift your rod! Stretch out your hand!
And get ready to move! For the same God who parted the seas for Moses… is still ‘steeping’ miracles in you. The victory is already in your hands! Amen
Dr. Ron Bell
