Let The Waves Wash Over You

The ocean has been on my mind.

I would love to spend time on a beach again, as it has been years since I have. There are few things more relaxing than hearing the sound of the waves hitting the shore line, and than draw back into the great deep.

However, just as the ocean is powerful in a peaceful and relaxing manner, so can she be terrifyingly destructive. Hurricane devastation and tragic drownings have affected the lives of so many. I believe this to be just like God. Although God is entirely sovereign and good, He is capable of reminding us that He is God in some less than peaceful ways.

A few weeks ago I was chatting with a friend via text. During the course of our conversation, she said "Sometimes I feel like life is just wave after wave, just beating me up." Immediately I had a visual of every challenge in life, but in the form of an ocean wave.

Trusting God, patience, infertility, death, divorce, confusion, betrayal, rape, murder, depression, uncontrollable pain, addictions, financial hardship, cancer, dementia, internal and external illnesses, e.t.c.

Imagine that you are sitting on the shoreline of the beach, when one of these particular waves started to wash up on you. Our human response is to get as far away from that shoreline as possible, because we don't want anything to do with that particular wave. We know what is going to happen, and it isn't good.

But, what if God wasn't just calling us to the wave, but straight into the expanse of the deep waters? A place so deep that you can't possibly imagine making it out alive? 

I want to challenge you that He is.

I firmly believe that God wants to draw us into the depths of pain and hardship, so that we will become closer and more dependent on Him. It is tempting to think that we could live without the absence of hardship, but would we need a heavenly Father if we did? Would it be necessary to have a relationship with a good and loving God? Would we be as apt to turn to Him in our happiness and joy? 

Personally, I know that I am guilty of not turning to God during the good times and the times of gratitude. I am more likely to turn to Him when I'm hurting, in pain or in need of something. Can you say the same?

Jesus says  "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."-John 16:33

He doesn't say "You may have trouble", but that you will have trouble. The waves of life will try to knock you down, but in Christ we have a firm foundation that we can cling to. "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand".

Friend, my prayer for you is that you will let those waves wash over you.When the current sweeps you in and you feel like you are drowning, that you will be reminded of how your Lord is an anchor to hold onto and how the waves and storms of this world serve but one purpose and one purpose only:

To draw you closer and deeper to the One who will never let you drown.