A Courageous Girl Glorifies God

Claire Black: This is True Girl a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s Truth for us, one drive at a time!You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus.

On this season of the True Girl podcast, we’re in Egypt!Our host, Dannah Gresh, is going to continue to help us study the life of Miriam—who lived in this land—as we continue in our Quest for Courage. This season of our podcast is based on a True Girl Bible study for tweens titled Miriam: Becoming a Girl of Courage. We’re bringing that Bible study to life on our little tour of Egypt.

As we travel from one destination to the next, you’ll learn all about how to become a girl of courage by tracing the ancient footsteps of Miriam.

Hey, can I ask you a question, True Girl? When you get afraid, do you ever notice that you start to think a whole lot about . . . yourself? I mean, I start to think things like, “I don’t know if I can do this,” or “What will everyone think of me?”

You too?

Well, today Dannah and Staci Rudolph are going to help us focus our attention somewhere else. It’s all part of our Quest for Courage. Let’s catch up with them. We’ll find them lounging on the beach of the Red Sea.

They’re trying to picture what it must have been like to watch the water part in two so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground. Can you imagine? Crazy, right?!

Dannah Gresh: Ahhh, Staci, can you believe that after today we only have one more stop on our quest for courage?

Staci Rudolph: Really? No way! Our trip is going by so fast!

Dannah: I know, but what a beautiful place to relax, though! I mean just look at it. The sparkling water, the ocean breeze, the sand between our toes. Glorious!

And just imagine, right here could have been where God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could walk straight through!

Staci: Yeah, I can barely wrap my mind around it!

Dannah: I can just see it now. All of the Israeilite people walking through walls made of water! They walked through that enormous body of water . . . on dry ground! I mean, how awesome is our God!

Staci: I know! I could just break out in worship right now. Too bad my guitar didn’t fit in my suitcase.

Dannah: Oh, it might have been something we could have used after all. In fact, that reminds me of the next part of Miriam’s story. I brought something . . . let me just find it in my beach bag here. There it is.

Staci: You brought a tambourine on our trip? Man, now I really wish I had brought my guitar. Okay, so now I’m curious. How does the tambourine connect to today’s courage lesson?

Dannah: Glad ya asked, Staci. Hey True Girl, it’s time for us to jump into our lesson for today. As we mentioned in our last courage quest, Miriam is all grown up. But not only is she all grown up, she is old. 

Staci: Like really old?

Dannah: Like really, really old! Some people believe she was ninety by the time she was standing here by the Red Sea. This old woman and her two brothers, Moses and Aaron, were chosen by God to lead the Exodus. That’s what we call the Israelites’ departure from Egypt. And, of course, the book of the Bible where we’ve been reading about it is also named after their journey.

One day they were slaves, and the next night, they were free.

Staci: Phew! I’m glad Miriam didn’t have to be a slave anymore!

Dannah: Me, too. I mean, shouldn’t old ladies get to sit in comfy lounge chairs like the one I’m sitting in and just relax the day away? 

Imagine what Miriam’s life might have looked like if she lived today and retired. But on the other hand, I’m sure glad she didn’t.

Staci: And I’m glad she was courageous. Because just as she was assisting Moses and her brother Aaron as they led the Israelite people out of Egypt . . . plot twist . . . something horrible happens!

Pharaoh changed his mind! 

Even after all God had done to prove His power to Pharoah, that stubborn man still didn’t want to let God’s chosen people go! He decided to chase after the Israelites and destroy them.

Dannah: That’s right. And the Israelites found themselves stuck right here on the beach of the Red Sea!

They were trapped between Pharaoh's armies and the Red Sea so that they had nowhere to go . . . or so they thought.

Staci: When the people came to Moses fearing for their lives, he told them something important. Wait, let me grab my beach bag. I got something that’ll help us with our lesson: my Bible.

Here’s what happened when the Israelites were by the Red Sea with Pharaoh chasing after them. This is Exodus 14:13–14:

But Moses told the people "Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm."

And so they did!

Dannah: They watched as God fought for them. You see, He sent a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

The cloud and the fire stood between them and the Egyptians and protected them. Not only that, but He commanded Moses to raise his hands over the sea. When Moses obeyed—remember that’s what courage looks like—the waves parted, revealing a dry path for the people to travel on.

Staci: It was a miracle! God had provided a way of escape! Can you imagine walking through the walls of water on dry ground? We’re talking millions of people marching like a parade from one side of the sea to the other—a parade for all the little fishes to see.

When the Israelites had made it to the other side, Pharoah and his army tried to catch up by chasing them into the middle of the sea. And that’s where the sea swallowed the Egyptians up. God wasn’t holding the water back for them, just the Israelites!

Dannah: Yeah, and when the Israelites saw all that God had done, they responded. They wanted to say thank you to Him!

Any time we encounter God, our first response should be to recognize His awesomeness and worship Him! And that’s exactly what Miriam and the Israelites did.

Let me read, Exodus 15:20–21 says:

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine and led all the women as they played their tambourines and danced. And Miriam sang this song: "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea."

Staci: Ohhh, now I see why you brought your tambourine!

Dannah: Ha ha, yep. Wanna hear something else that makes this tambourine so special?

Staci: Sure, go ahead.

Dannah: Okay, let me remind you: the Israelites left in a real hurry when they left Egypt. They didn’t even let their bread rise! They packed the way you might if your house was about to be hit by a hurricane. When you leave that quickly, you only pack what you absolutely need to take with you. Staci, any idea what some of those things could be?

Staci: Well, you’d need to bring food, because a girl’s gotta eat!

Dannah: Yeah, what else?

Staci: Maybe some basic medicine in case someone gets sick or wounded?

Dannah: Definitely helpful! And maybe some clothes or you know just the essentials. But you don’t pack things like your super-cute llama shaped tea diffuser just because it's adorable. You get what I’m saying? Only essentials go with you.

So, why did all these women, including Miriam, pack their tambourines?

Staci: I dunno? It must have been important to them? Tell me.

Dannah: Well, these women packed their instruments of worship on a very, very, very dark night.

If you remember, it was a night of death and sadness. The final plague resulted in the death of the oldest child in each Egyptian home. 

Now, the reason that there wasn’t death in the homes of the Israelites was because they made a sacrifice. They took the blood of that animal sacrifice and painted their door frames. That meant when the Spirit of Death showed up, it passed over the homes that had faith in the one true God, the God of the Israelites. 

But you know, even though the Israelites did not experience that in their homes and they were set free, I imagine they knew some of the people who died. Although they wanted to leave Egypt, I would also guess that they were a little afraid of setting off in the night. But these women somehow in all of that chaos, they believed that they would need their tambourine to worship God, because they trusted Him to bring a bright day while they were surviving the very dark night!

Listen to me: a girl who trusts God knows that she’ll be singing again even on those dark nights when she doesn’t feel like hearing one lonely note of music.

Staci: Wow, now that right there is powerful!

Dannah: I know right?! When Miriam left Egypt at night, she didn’t know she’d be crossing the Red Sea on dry ground or that Pharaoh’s army would be swallowed by the water. But she did know she’d be worshiping God with that tambourine. That’s a lot of faith.

Here’s something I really want you to see: Miriam might have been dancing and singing, but it’s God who was in the spotlight. She was glorifying Him. Because to glorify Him means to make Him known or visible.

Staci: So, when Miriam sang and danced by the Red Sea, she was telling everyone who deserved all of the credit: God! It was not her courage or Moses’ raised hands or Aaron’s leadership that was worthy of being glorified. It was God’s faithfulness and strength.

Dannah: That’s sooooo good, Staci. Ya know what else? When things don’t go well in my life and I feel afraid, well, it’s easy for me to get self-conscious. To think things like, “I can’t do it!” “What will happen to me?” “What will people think of me?” 

Me, myself, and I get together and have a pity party when life is difficult.

But Miriam reminds me there’s a better way when we feel afraid. Worship! Instead of thinking about how small we are, we can think about how big God is! I think Miriam did that—not just after the Red Sea, but before it!

Staci: I’ll snap to that. That’s good, Dannah!

Dannah: This, my friend, brings us to our courage lesson of the day Let’s review.

Staci: Courage lesson #1: A courageous girl is obedient, not exceptionally extraordinary!

Courage Lesson #2: A courageous girl learns obedience from other godly people. She’s not born with it.

Courage Lesson #3: A courageous girl trusts God, even when it takes a long time for Him to answer her prayers!

And here it is, Courage Lesson #4 from the life of Miriam: A courageous girl glorifies God!

So, something big that we can take away from our lesson today is that a courageous girl gives all of the glory to God! She focuses on Him. Makes Him known. She thinks about Him. She worries about what other people think of Him!

She gives God credit and that helps other people to know He is present. Sometimes the way she gives God credit is to worship!

Dannah: Exactly! But there are lots of ways we can glorify God besides worshiping with a tambourine. I remember a time when I needed a lot of courage. My twin grandbabies, Addie and Zoe were born so early that they needed to be on special life support in the hospital. They needed oxygen because their lungs were not working without help. Those were some really dark nights!

Staci: Wow, that must have been really hard.

Dannah: It was. Every time we stopped praying because we were too tired or started to think things were okay the oxygen machines told us Addie and Zoe were in danger! So, we prayed harder and asked all of our friends to join us. Every single time we prayed, those sweet babies had good success breathing. Every time.

So we told people: God did this! Because He did! When we said those three simple words—God did this—we were glorifying God.

Staci: What a beautiful story! Dannah, you had a lot of courage to trust God during that hard and scary time. Was there anything in particular that really helped you when things got hard?

Dannah: Well, other than the grace of God Himself, there is a Bible verse that helps me when I feel afraid and need to be reminded that courage comes from trusting God’s strength and not my own. In fact, that verse is today’s Bible verse of the day.

Staci: Oh, I was wondering when we would get to the verse of the day. Honestly, I thought you forgot. 

Dannah: Ha ha don’t worry; I didn’t forget! I was just waiting for the right moment to share it. Here’s Isaiah 41:10:

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

As you think about that verse, I need you to know that not all of my prayers have been answered how I hoped they would be. In fact, I once prayed very hard for a friend who had cancer. He was not healed, and he died. But you know this verse was important then, too. I thought of it often because I needed God’s strength to fight my discouragement and sadness as I grieved. God helped me through that “dark night” too. This verse was of great help.

True Girl, if you get anything from this episode, I want you to know that the courage we need to face the hard things in life doesn’t come from inside ourselves, it comes from God. And because courage comes from God, we should give all the glory to God when He does something courageous through us—even if it doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would.

Oh wow, would you look at that sunset, Staci! What a beautiful painting by our Creator, huh?

I mean, I could never do that! God did that!

Staci: So beautiful. True Girl, I don’t know what God is doing in your life, but maybe take some time today to say, “God did that!”

Claire: I hope you enjoyed our trip to the Red Sea, True Girl. I think I have a great solution for the next time I feel self-conscious and fearful. I’m gonna grab my tambourine! And I’m going to choose to think about how big and great God is rather than how small and insecure I am.

Can you believe that we only have one more courage quest left? I hope you are well on your way to becoming a girl of courage.

Isn’t it comforting to know that courage comes from God and isn’t something we have to muster up on our own? God is the one who gives us courage to face the hard times in life. And just like Miriam, we should respond to the courage God provides and the work that He is doing in us, by bringing glory to His name!

Well, there’s so much to learn about the life of Miriam that we could not possibly cover it all in this podcast—even a whole season!

So, be sure to grab a copy of Miriam: Becoming a Girl of Courage by Dannah Gresh. You might even want to grab two, one for you, one for your mom! This Bible study, written just for girls like you, it’s designed to help you and your mom dive deeply into the Word of God to learn even more about Miriam’s courageous life, so that you can be courageous too.

You can learn more about the Miriam Bible Study and all our other resources at MyTrueGirl.com

Where do you think Dannah and Staci will end up for our last courage quest destination?

Here’s a hint: Where did God give Moses the Ten Commandments?

If you answer that question correctly, you’ll know exactly where we’ll be. So be sure to tune in to next week’s episode to find out.

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

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