Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against — tribulation, suffering, and persecution — are the very things that produce abundant joy in us.
The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Paul said this is the reason that “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
“Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest”.
Why do the waves sometimes feel as if they are new to us, as if we have never experienced them before?
I am sure that there are such things as new waves, bigger and more challenging than before. Yet those familiar waves that keep pounding the shore day after day, shouldn’t we face those with extreme confidence? Have we not conquered these many times before? Is it just a matter of not remembering or recognizing the waves? Would it help for us to stop before we enter the waters and take the time to assess the wave? This one I have seen before and this is how God helped me navigate it. Or this one looks a little different, yet it is still a wave made up of the same attributes of the ones in the past. Therefore, I know God delivered me then and He will deliver me now.
Being in the ocean, there are thousands of waves, mostly small but all a little different that keep us on edge and alert always trying to knock us off our board. Yet at certain times of the day or evening, we catch a glimpse when the waters settle down. There is a peacefulness that overtakes us. We can rest. We know that sooner or later the waves will pick back up and we, once again, will be a little stronger this day to battle them.
Then there are those days when we are taken by surprise by a wave that is bigger and stronger and more violent than we have ever experienced. To the novice, the waves will tumble us, yet to the seasoned surfer, it may knock us off the board, but we will draw from past experience and get right back on and ride the wave out. For we know the wave will only last for a short while, then the water will return to it’s calm self.
Let us ride the waves of life with the confidence and comfort that God is there with us today as He has been for thousands of waves before.
In the end, it is not the knowledge or understanding that God has the power to rescue us, but it is the love that God has for us that won’t allow for Him to not to do so. For God’s only weakness, is that He cannot not love us and that love drives Him to do the unimaginable things in our life.
Just a Thought…
