Day 150

Have you ever thought of life as a river? Our life should flow in a definite course, the course of following our Savior. In life we will face times of diverging and converging. When we diverge, we are turning aside from things. And somethings we should not turn aside from and some things we should. When we diverge from what we shouldn't we are turning aside from the natural flow of our lives and what God intended it to be for Him.  Converge means to incline to each other. That could be the time in our life, our river, where we marry the love of our life and we incline to each other and we become one river. Sometimes in the course of marriage we  try to diverge from each other and that is not what God intended, He intended us to converge together, to become one flesh. We fight against the current though, we want what we want without thinking of the other first when that is really what marriage is about and if we all did this, the marriages today would be in a better condition. Okay sorry getting off track on the marriage thing, it just kind of struck me here. Their are other thing we converge with in life as well in our different relationships.

 Through out the river in life we will come to sections of rapids and calm. The rapids in a river are usually the shallow parts of a river. Wow! If you think back on all your rough patches in life, can you ever see where maybe you were being shallow minded. You were not thinking deep enough into life but thinking of yourself. I am not saying all the time but I do think during the hard times in life we do think about ourselves a little more. We focus on how things are affecting the calm of our life, how it is hurting us and might be throwing us off course.

Then there are the calm areas, which tend to be the deepest parts of a river. Think back again into the calm areas of your life. Were you thinking deeper, were you loving deeper, were you thinking of others above yourself. were you considering the whole picture, the different perspectives and how you should handle a situation instead of thinking shallow minded.  And in the deep parts we usually consider our actions and how they will affect the others in our lives.

I think both are necessary in our lives, they teach us different things about life and about who we are as a person and what we need to work on to become a better person. We need those times when we focus on ourselves and not hide from our hurts. Where we humbly come before God and ask for his help in the rapids of our lives.  We need to grasp God in those rapids, hold firmly to Him so that we do not diverge off course and into something that He never meant for our lives. He knows that it will be detrimental to who we are in this life.  And in the calm parts we need to not forget about ourselves and try to cover the hurts from the rapids but take that time to heal from the rapids of life.  Find your healing in the calm, find your healing in the deep parts of God. Try to go deeper during those time of calm so that He can heal all those parts that were some what damaged from the rapids of life.

Put your life, your marriage, your children, your relationships in Gods hands. Sometimes in the rapids we try to convince ourselves that some things are okay for us to do but this is just the enemy trying to diverge us off course. He wants to take your attention away from God, because he is scared of what we can do for God.  Stand firm and fight in your rapid, fight the current.  Right pass the rapid is the deep calming waters of our Savior where He comes into our life like a flood of peace to heal and restore our damaged parts.

Sometimes we get off course and we diverge into things that we should not be, but the great thing about my Savior is that He is so big that His arms stretch so far that He can pull us back to the right course. Sometimes it takes some work because He never told us life was easy but He did tells He would be with us through every part of it.  No matter if you stayed on course and fought and survived your rapid or you diverged and slip up in some areas, God is there for the ones who were strong and for the ones who were weak.  He is there to heal and forgive everyone. We will all have times when we are strong and when we are weak.  His forgiveness and His restoration is still there for us no matter the course we choose.

And sometimes we need to stop on the river bank, reflect, pray to decide what course we really want in this life and the affect it will have on the ones we love the most on this earth. I pray my mind stays upon God in the rapids and in the calm. I want to choose His action and what He thinks is best for me not what I feel is best for me.

In my life I have chosen what I wanted, what made me feel good and in the end I regretted those decisions. I tried to find people that would back me up but what I was really searching for was for someone to say Stop! you are getting off course. Get on your riverbank and ponder what you are doing and how it is affecting your relationship with God and the people you hold most precious and dear. But we are all human and sometimes facing the same issues as the other one and we slip up and give wrong advice to people. I know I have been on both sides, I have gotten wrong advice and given wrong advice. We should really pray in these times, that God leads us to the right people for advice, that God would put people in our lives to be accountable to that stand upright before God and tell me that I am wrong and help me pray through those times in my life. And I pray that I can be that person to others as well.

The good thing about my Savior is that He as always brought me back to the right course of my river, the river that He has planned for my life, where He wants me to be, where He wants to use me. That even though I got off course and I diverged, He can still use that all for His glory.  The rapids and the calm are all meant for our lives, He is with us through each of them. We are never to far gone that He can not reach us and bring us back to Him. His love is so deep and wide that we can not even imagine it. Their is a river that He has made specially for me and their are things He wants me to do, there is a plan in this life! I am special to Him and He loves me so deeply. And you are special as well and He has great plans for your river in life. Trust in Him through your river in life, cling to Him with all you have in you! He wants to make your river beautiful and with Him in it it will be a Beautiful River!

I am not the best writer but this was something that has been on my heart so I tried my best to make it come across as I see it! Have beautiful day!