WATER,WATER EVERYWHERE; but not a drop to drink.

So Atlanta and the surrounding areas appear to be drowning in water stained with red mud. It’s everywhere you look. The air itself is saturated with moisture. Roads are closed, some homes are flooded , others are without power and some are without (believe it or not) water. So I found it really amusing that while listening to a news anchor on T.V. I heard him say. “If you have no water in your home because of the flooding you need to boil your water for the next 24 hours.” My first thought; which as always was very sarcastic, was “Did you ad-lib that or did someone really put that on your teleprompter?”. First of all, if you have no water coming out of the faucet where are you going to get this water to boil? Out of your front yard? And second, you can’t boil it for 24 hours cause there wouldn’t be anything left. OK, I admit it, I am a smart aleck.

Having to deal with all the rain and the potential of the creek bordering my front yard invading my personal living space made me reflect a bit on just how powerful water in itself is. How it is necessary to sustain life and how it can take life. You can’t stop it or even re-direct it without the help of many people and a lot of pre-planning. The only one who can control water is God himself. I am not going to ask “Why is this happening?”; only He himself knows the answer to that age old question. What I am asking myself is “How can I use this experience?”. It is a reminder to me that He is in control of all things and that I don’t have to be concerned about the final out come.

Then the thought comes to me that it is really easy for me to say and acknowledge that God is in control since nothing bad has happened to me in relation to this event. My home hasn’t been flooded, I still have power and water. So, what is the lesson here for me personally? The next thought that pricks the back of my mind….so if you believe that God is indeed in control, why were you so anxious yesterday when you saw the creek come over it’s banks?

The message for me appears to be a very gentle reminder that I need to seek Him first (Matthew 6:33). Give Him all my anxious thoughts (Phillipians 4:6) and the only way to do this is to seek a quiet place each day and spend time with Him. If I don’t do that then I will have no idea who He is or what His Word says in regard to how I am to think and act on a daily basis. In essence I will have no way of knowing what he wants me to do or how I am to do it. A real life application to the instruction to "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." If I won’t be still, there may come a time when He will make me do exactly that. I won’t have an option, perhaps he may take away the electricity so the T.V. or the internet are not available.
He has the power……my lesson from the flood….He is indeed in control and he wants me to be still and spend more time with Him which is a reinforcement of the sermon I heard Sunday.

Psalm 46 (New International Version)
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah