Deep Calls to Deep

By Brookelynn Harper, Fellowship Bible Church Rogers Celebrate Recovery Landing Resident and Devotional Team writer, 06/17/20


One time, when I was younger, I went out to spend some time at the lake with my friends. It was a beautiful day – blue skies, hot sun – perfect for some time on the water. Everyone else thought so too. We couldn’t go twenty seconds without seeing another boat.

Now, I was swimming in the water, having the time of my life. Pretty soon, though, I was called back to the boat for lunch. I turned back. In a second, the fun went away. I was much farther away from the boat than I thought I was. As I paddled back, every wave made by the jet skis and speedboats all around me seemed to push me further and further away from the ladder hanging from that distant, floating sanctuary. I was already tired, and I kept being push forward, backwards, sideways by the choppy waves. I began to feel afraid, and embarrassed. The water got in my mouth, and I wondered if I would drown. I just couldn’t make it to the boat. It felt impossible.

I have felt that way recently in my life. I see that I am further from being free from a habit than I thought I was. An emotional wound shows itself to be much more tender than I thought it was. I feel shame or embarrassment because of it. As I wrestle with trying to force myself to be better, to heal faster, it feels as though I will never be able to. No matter how hard I try, I’m never strong enough to carry myself to the safety of the boat.

I know that I never would have made it out of those rough waters into the boat on my own. But someone jumped off the boat, grabbed me by my lifejacket, and carried me with him to the ladder. Just as now, in my struggles, I can’t do it alone. But God is steadfast beside me. Even though I do not have the power or resilience to recover every time a struggle knocks me down, I have Jesus who does. He is with me, and He will carry me back to His boat time and time again. He carries me back through His Word. He carries me back through friends that I have made while walking this journey toward recovery in Him. He carries me back no matter what struggle or difficulty I have had today.

That fact comforts me more than anything else ever could.

 

Psalm 42:7-11

Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Click HERE to listen to “Oceans” by Hillsong United

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