Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Where Feet May Fail

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
This bridge is from a song of a popular Christian worship band.  A lot of churches may even sing this song during their worship services.  How often do we sing this lyric, but really mean it? How often have I listened to and sung this lyric, but only really pay lip service to it.  

A Prayer Answered
Herein stands the believer's paradox. We pray, "God I want to become more dependent upon you, more reliant upon your grace."  But we don't really want God to answer that prayer.  Because when He answers that prayer, it means we lose control.  
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”  Matthew 14:28-30
I resonate with Peter.  He was a deep feeler.  Showed his emotions on his sleeve.  He had the guts to pray a prayer like the lyric above, but once the Lord answered, saw he had no control over his situation and it brought him to a place of complete and utter dependance upon Jesus.  But it was motivated out of fear and doubt, not confidence in His Lord, as we see by the Lord's response in verse 31: 
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:31
And this is the sinner's dilemma.  Because sin has weighed down our perspective and thinking, we come to Jesus often out of fear and doubt.  But take heart sinner.  Christ's blood has been sprinkled upon our consciences, upon our way of thinking, and we no longer need to come to Him in fear and doubt.  
"...let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22
Our Confidence in Christ
"Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander...".  To pray a prayer like that and mean it takes guts.  And when God answers, we can confidently go to Him to trust that He will keep us above the waters.  But be ready for anything.  Taking us deeper than our feet could ever wander could mean a new ministry, a new place, a difficult trial, and certainly unknown boundaries to our current experience. And because we are on this side of the blood offering of Christ on the cross, we can confidently draw near to His help, His hand to hold you up, and "make your faith stronger". 

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Honduras July 2010