Lifeguard on Duty

My mother and father divorced shortly after I was born. I grew up with an awkward stepmother and an abusive father. At 21 years old my life changed drastically. I lost the only family that I had known and all of the dysfunction that was normal to me. God introduced me to a new family. From that experience I learned that God gives us what we need at the time that it makes the most impact on our purose and when He can be assured to get the glory. From that new family I gained a dear and precious friend. She recently called me. I hadn't spoken to her in a few years, but I was so thankful to hear from her again. As we caught up I began to share my current state of mind; how I wasn't in a good place in several ways and how I felt like I was sinking. I explained how I missed how she and I would sit and talk about the Lord and share in the Word. She said, "Some times God leads us down a path that we do not understand, but we are able to make it back to Him. The point of the path is not about us, but rather about us recognizing when someone else is going down that path and being there to help him/her back when they can't find their own way." Since that conversation I have been asking God for insight into her statement. God brought me back to Matthew 14:22-32. This passage is the story of Peter waking on the water. God also asked me who I was serving and if I was serving Him why wasn't I keeping His commandments to love Him with all of my heart, my soul and my might and to love my neighbor as myself. God has led me by this commandment to love since I was a little girl. He has helped me to escape the lure of religion and to embrace our relationship by remembering that He created me to do His will. I am quite fascinated by the humanity of the story of Peter walking on the water and then beginning to sink, but finally reaching out to Jesus for help. Not just because Peter walked on water, which was awesome and supernatural, but because of the verses that lead up to that event. These verses clearly indicate that Jesus knew full well that He was sending Peter into a sinking situation far from the peaceful shore. Jesus knew that the wind would blow and that the waves would beat violently against the boat, threatening the lives inside. Jesus knew that He was sending the rock of the Christian church into a perilous experience and while it may have hurt Jesus to do so, He did it purposefully. Jesus sent Peter into a place of hardship in order to test the very limits of Peter's trust and to fortify Peter's confidence. Most of all Jesus knew that the gates of hell would not prevail against Peter. Jesus knew the outcome and so do we. There are times that we will find ourselves in the middle of a sinking situation where we feel like no one is interested in throwing us a life preserver, but rather criticizing and judging us for not rescuing ourselves. The important thing to hold onto in that sinking situation is that there is a lifeguard on duty. While Jesus was sending Peter into a time of testing, He also knew the result of the test would be to break up the fallow ground in Peter's mind and to provide a break through in Peter's experience in God. It would help Peter to push past his problems, past his emotions, past his feelings of inadequacy and past his heartache. Jesus knew Peter was the right candidate to build the modern day Christian church on, but Jesus also knew the Peter felt broken and that Peter needed a savior to save his soul, to guard his life, his mind and his spirit. Peter's mind needed to be expanded and his faith needed some exercise. Peter's hope needed to be stretched and his heart needed to be founded in the fact that there was absolutely no situation that God couldn't rescue Peter from. It was the path through the storm that opened up Peter's anointing. It was the storm that prompted Peter to walk on the water toward Jesus. It was the need to refocus, when he started to sink, that taught Peter to call on the name of Jesus and it was Peter's sinking that activated Jesus' saving power; a power that Peter would learn to hone and rely on again and again with every new test and peril. See all at once Peter learned to lean on Jesus rather than on his own ability or understanding. What Peter experienced provided him the opportunity to accept the power of God and the calling on his own life. These are the lessons that God wants us to learn with every storm that we find ourselves in. The boat that brought us into the middle of it all may break apart, the winds my blow and the waves may beat, the rain may come and it may seem very frightening, but there is in it all the chance to expand our faith to accept the power of God and the calling on our lives. There is the opportunity to trust God and what He is doing. To rest in Him. To reach out to Him for help. There is the chance to put our hand in His hand and allow Him to guard our lives. He's on duty 24-7-365. There's never a tear that He doesn't see. There's never a situation where He's not there. He already knows you need Him and He purposed the disturbance to bring you to a place where you could learn to love the Lord with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your might and to learn to love your neighbor as yourself. That sinking sensation is really God bringing you into a place of relationship rather than religion. It is His way of keeping you grounded and understanding that you serve Him and that to love Him means keeping His commandments. He is sending you purposefully into the preparation and qualification that you need to edify the body and to glorify Him. He knows that you win and He so wants you to know that to. Today please be encouraged to PUSH (pray until something happens). Please read the Word and hide it in your heart. Please hear God and keep your concentration trained on Him. And if you begin to sink, call Him. He will rescue you. He's on duty.