LIFE JACKET

So yesterday I went to this aqua park with my little brother and I got this message and I just wanted to share. I hope we all know what a life jacket is. When we go for swimming or into the deep into the river or ocean, or sea or whatever, they sometimes provide you with a life jacket. Life jackets are designed to keep you afloat in water. It is to prevent you from drowning and from sinking. No matter how low or deep you go under water, as long as you have the life jacket on, it will push you back up.

So they gave us a life jacket and said we should go into the water. We did and as we got deeper, I couldn’t feel the ground anymore so I started to panic. I can swim but I always feel comfortable swimming because I know that I can touch the ground when I get back up. This one, I couldn’t feel the floor so it was a different feeling. The man reassured us that the life jacket will keep us afloat in water and as long as it is on, there is not way we can drown.

That moment, I thought of God. We are always comfortable when we do things ourselves, when we know the way in which to go, when we can afford everything, when we can find our feet. We become complacent in our old ways. But when it comes to a time that we have to reach higher, or come out our comfort zone, it is scary and new so we decide not to do it and we decide to stay in our place of comfort. Fear and anxiety takes over and then we chose to stand where we are. But then God is our life jacket and we forget he is with us. We forgot that we won’t sink because our life jacket is intact to us. We forget that He is our God that and all He wants for us is to go higher and reach for the skies. Our God is our life jacket. For us to step into deeper ends without fear and with the recognition that our life jacket is available, we need three key stages to help us do this. Which is 1) Faith 2) Surrender 3) Trust

Faith:

The Bible has spoken so much on faith. James 2:14 tells us that “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?”. Another verse from James 1:22 tells us that “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” These two verses highlights that faith isn’t faith if you are not showing or doing it. You can have faith, but what is the benefit of having faith and not showing it. If you say you have faith, you need to act upon it. If you have faith that God can use you to spread the word, jump into the faith and start something. Let your faith lead you into starting something. As long as you believe that the faith of God will take you to higher lengths, you got this.

The story of the woman with the issue of blood came to my head as I thought of faith. This woman tried every humanly thing possible, but when she decided to let her faith lead her, she finally got her healing. She believed if I touches Jesus' clothes, she will be healed (Mark 5:25-34). She believed and proceeded to it. Action is important. If she knew if I she this, she will get her healing and she didn’t do it, she would have never got her healing. Let faith lead our ways.

Surrender:

Proverbs 23:26 tells us to “give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways”. By surrendering to God, you are telling him to take control, to lead, to be in charge, to steer the car. We need to let God in order for God to move and show us his ways. I remember in the middle of the water, I was hanging on so tight to the bar on the sides of the inflated thing. I started to think, “what will happen if I let go off this thing” so I did. I then realised that there was no way I was going to drown. I floated in the middle of the water and I saw the power and the use of the life jacket. It was like an epiphany. To be honest when I realised that, that was when I started having fun cause I said to myself, there is no way I am drowning today.

Surrendering yourself to Christ will give you that realisation that as long as God is with you, there is no way you will fail. Not a chance. I remember a story in the Bible about a King, Jehoshaphat. They went to battle and they knew that there was no way they could win unless God intervened. They fasted and prayed and then God came to fight for them. They arrived at the battle and the battle was done (2 Chronicles 20:1-23). They won without even trying. When we surrender to God, everything will work out for our good. We will win without trying. He will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death. Surrender today, surrender now, and let God show you his power.

Trust:

Proverbs 3:5-6, one of the famous and effective Bible verses, which says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Trust is hard. Trusting your friends, colleagues, family, husbands, wives can be hard. But the Bible is saying if we trust the Lord, he will lead us and direct us to the right places. Trust and faith are very similar to me. Because when you have faith, you trust that God will come to your aid. Daniel trusted the Lord even when he was in the Lion’s den. He trusted that his faithful God will come and rescue him (Daniel 6:1-28). In deep situations, our trust, our faith, our hope in God disappears. But in Daniel’s situation, he still trusted that God will appear. We need to trust the Lord everyday. We need to believe that he got us no matter what. He is Lord.

Always remember that our God is our life jacket. He has us and he got us. Ephesians 3:20 highlights that “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” will help us and direct us. Activate your life jacket, and swim without any fear. Because I assure you that you will float. Have a lovely week. God bless you.

Prayer: God we thank you, we pray and we magnify you. God help us activate you in our lives. Let us always take steps without fear and let us surrender to you without thinking twice and let us trust that you got us no matter what. We bless your name, we thank you Lord. In Jesus name, amen.