Waves of Mercy

Today’s devotional is focused on following Jesus though we are dismayed. A message of perseverance for a follower feeling overwhelmed with the journey.

Sometimes no matter how much we know of Christ’s ministry or how long our experience of God’s grace and mercy has been, we can feel terribly far from the Lord’s side. The constant challenge to abide with Christ, since we dwell in a broken world, wears on the believer. Days spent striving to keep up with Jesus can feel daunting when one truly sees the Lord. His agility, perseverance and pace in the sand, contrasts our stiff limbs, fatigue and lagging scramble. Distance grows between our footprints and the Lord’s, as both awe and amazement wake us to a new perspective of our Savior. Oswald states it this way; “Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar.”

When it hits a believer that they do not truly know their Savior as intimately as thought, a sense of dismay may wash over them. “We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. “ Oswald encourages followers to hold fast through the “darkness of dismay,” though part of their spirit feels unattached to the Lord. This is a scary stretch of shore to tread. For what one believed to be a sizable rock of familiarity and understanding, is reduced to a grain of sand. The idea of who Jesus is expands beyond our comprehension and a holy fear of the Almighty grips us.

“What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 7:4NIV).

Our efforts to live according to God’s principles can feel like we’re building castles in the sand: a day’s efforts, washed away by the tide of sin. No matter how we toil, sin comes again and again like waves. Yet, God intends there to be a message of grace and mercy in every rolling foam tipped swell. Though the tide has highs and lows, the waves are held back by the hand of God.

“Even the wind and the waves obey Him,” (Matthew 8:27NIV).

When Christian’s exercise discipline to stay the path--though Jesus becomes a greater mystery and the goal of life seems lost at sea--they will learn more about the Lord’s ways. On the other side of dismay they will draw nearer to God and find an “inexpressibly wonderful joy” in following the Master.