Before The Rush And Roar Of Oceans

Posted by Traci at 6:22 PM

Here is what God is teaching me lately - do not ask Him to use me unless I am prepared to be made useful.

The last few months have been rough in so many ways, logistically, financially, financially. In truth the last two years, though so often glorious, have changed and twisted and nearly broken me. And yet He loves us.

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown

where feet may fail

Found a great but scary verse the other day. 

God is a safe place to hide,
    ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
    courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
    the tremors that shift mountains.  Psalm 46

If God is ready to help when we need Him then ....He wants us to need Him. I'm fine with the idea of that, not so fine with standing at the cliff-edge of doom, drowning in the rush and roar of the ocean. Yet here I am.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever you would call me

The things we sing about and pray for and think about - for God to increase and us to decrease, for our comforts and convictions to be broken down - these things are impossible. I can no more squeeze Godliness out of myself than I can tickle myself. Only God can make us into what we desire, His kingdom come, His hands on earth, love in flesh and bones.

Only the Master Potter can form the vase we never thought possible. And truly, had we known the jar he'd destroy to create this new thing we'd have taken all our pleadings back. But God doesn't do take-backs, and in the end I'm glad. Because as John Mark McMillan wrote "I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves me."

At a conference I attended recently Beth Guckenberger (who was a true prophet) took us to Mark 4, where Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee to heal the man possessed by demons and left for dead. She said in that culture large bodies of water were called the abyss and symbolized hell. Jesus started across the abyss and what happened but a huge storm came over him. Did Jesus freak out and question everything and turn back? Well duh no. Like Jesus, when we go into the chaos of this broken world as the love God created us to be, the storm will get all up in our business. But we must, as Beth said, be like Jesus and respond "abyss get out of my way, I got a story to weave!".

So often during the last few years I've done a specific thing God has told me to do and it's all gone bad. But I read recently this is nothing new. In Peter's first letter he said as much:

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.  

So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.  1 Peter 4