Beneath The Waves Of Affliction

“I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me” Psalm 69:2

    It surprises me that when I am barely treading water, merely keeping afloat, a new wave difficulty, worsening illness, new problems rise up to sink me. By now it should not surprise me, but often I am left shaking my head in disbelief that things could, and just did, get worse.

    What happens when we are sunk beneath the depths because of our afflictions? We need a serious infusion of God’s intervention from above to save us. And the good news is that He does save us. Sometimes it is not as quickly as we might like, but He lifts us above the flood.

    At times the “what ifs” torment me, bringing to mind the worst case scenarios for every problem and challenge. During those times history lessons are extremely helpful. I start counting and remembering the numerous times that God saved me from the flood in the past.

    Sometimes the waves come crashing quickly upon us and we start sinking. Then things can look very grim, and we begin panicking and letting fear drive us and cloud our thinking. But what we need to do is call upon the Lord, ask Him to deliver us from our fears, and to save us from our flooding circumstances.

    The enemy is an artist, he can paint tremendous pictures of doom, failure, and defeat. But these worst case scenarios are not honest images. If the worst thing that can happen in any situation is that we die and go on to be with Jesus–that is no bad thing. But most of the time Jesus has more for us to do, and we need to picture our Lord coming to our rescue. We must stop allowing the negative waves that come our way turn into mental tsunamis.

    Prayer: Dear Lord, the waves are rising, the wind is howling, deliver us, restore us, and bring us peace. Amen.