Daily devotion – clean water…
James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
In surfing terms, we are always looking for some ‘clean water’, that’s water not affected by rips or currents or backwash. A place where you are not having to fight against these things whilst seeking to paddle into the next best wave.
But there are times when such ‘clean water’ is hard to located or it keeps shifting along the beach with the changing tide and weather conditions.
All of us would like to be able to live our lives without having to deal with storms, difficult issues that suddenly rise up, things that we don’t want to have to face or deal with. But such a life does not really exist in a fallen world full of sin and selfishness.
Problems come, illness, death, grief, misunderstanding and heartache. But for the Christian there is more to what we face than just difficult times. God allows certain things to sweep over our lives as James tells us so that we will grow, mature, be a person who no matter the situation, we will seek God in such times and God uses such times to make us more like Christ.
Life will always have its tides, currents, changing weather conditions, strong winds and storms, but James tells us that we are to see the hand of God in such times and situations. We are to ‘count it all for joy’, because in our testing we are becoming people of faith.
The Bible tells us that the ‘just shall live by faith’. For such a person of faith, there comes a stability, a sense of God’s continual presence and guidance, that keeps bringing us to the ‘clear water’. A place where we are able to see God’s power released in our lives, His love channelled through us and our hope solid in Him.
As with the ocean conditions, the world we live in and each day we face, will continue to change around us. But Lord willing, we will be growing in His grace, becoming patient in our faith, and no longer be people controlled by the elements around us, but be found always safe in His hand!
John 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.