Faith & Worship‘The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly…’ 1 Tim 1:14
There is a wonderful cycle in nature that links the first three of our
studies. Water evaporates from the seas, is lifted into the atmosphere
where it forms clouds over higher ground, to be later deposited as rain
upon hillside and mountain. There it becomes trickles of water feeding
into streams which flow down to lower ground and pastures, growing into
a river and eventually flowing back into the sea, where the cycle begins
once again. As a result of this continual cycle, plants are watered, crops
grown and harvested and mankind fed and kept from starvation. This happens
without the impact of man, but without it man could not live.
I live the story told by Amy Carmichael about a time when love seemed
in short supply. She was sitting by a pool in the forest and watching
the water flowing in from a stream carved out in the rocks above it. There
was always inflow, and always outflow. Never for one minute did the water
cease to flow in, and never for one moments did it cease to flow out.
‘I knew, of course, that the water that flowed out was the water
that flowed in.’ she relates. ‘The hollow that we called The
Pool had no water of its own, and yet all the year round there was an
outflow…. If love flows in, love will glow out. Let love flow in,
that was the word of The Pool.’
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land— a land with
streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;
8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig-trees, pomegranates, olive
oil and honey Deut 8:7-8
So it is with God’s provision for mankind, both physically and spiritually.
His Love, Mercy and Grace flow endlessly 24/7 into lives that are open
to receive it - refreshing, feeding, strengthening and enabling. Nothing
can stop the flow, but it is possible to fill the pond with debris so
that the water flows around and away. God’s Grace has been flowing
in this world from the moment of its creation. Some have chosen to open
themselves to the flow, to let that stream feed them and overflow to the
world around them. Others have donned their waterproof clothing and refused
to let the water get through, or have filled their lives with so much
debris that nothing can percolate through to their hearts and souls.
We need to look back in time to those heady days in the Garden of Eden,
beyond the symbolism to the simple story of mankind and its relationship
with The Creator.
‘Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;
and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds
of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye
and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden
flowed from Eden…’
Genesis 2:8
It was a great relationship at the start; Adam walked naked through the
Garden, smelt the flowers, drank from its streams, ate the fruits and
berries and admired the diversity of trees and plants that had been placed
there. He did all of this hand in hand with his God, enjoying all the
good things that had been provided for his use and enjoyment. It was a
beautiful place and it was a beautiful relationship, but it was all to
go tragically wrong. Eve persuades Adam that they could manage quite nicely
without that closeness, and they choose self-sufficiency against the all-sufficiency
of a life fed and watered by the stream of living water that flows from
the Creator.
It’s a mistake that so many make, not just out there in ‘The
World’ but even within our churches. It’s to do with dependency.
Without water we quickly go thirsty, and soon afterward hunger sets in.
There’s plenty of physical starvation in this world but I guess
that spiritual starvation is even more prevalent; showing itself in the
general apathy toward organised religion in the West, and within this
post-modern world an insistence that there are no absolutes, merely opportunities
to create god in our own image.
Go for that walk in the countryside, or if you have a river flowing through
your town or city sit beside it and meditate for a while. Look at the
strength of the current flowing by; consider the water which has its source
beyond your view, and a destination that is the ocean. The water carries
with it debris that it has picked up along its travels, and beneath its
surface are stones, once rough and jagged that have been smoothed and
shaped by the continual action of the currents.
Where is your life in relationship to that flow of water? Has the debris
that you carry with you been washed away? The sticks with which you hurt
others, the grime and rubbish that weigh you down – are they still
there or are they already being swept on their way to the ocean?
And what about those stones and pebbles? How rough and jagged are the
edges of your life, and how much in need are you of being moulded into
something smooth and beautiful in God’s eyes?
That stream – we can’t do without it, and now and then we
have to immerse ourselves in it if we’re going to stay alive.
Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth,
and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world.
- Brenda Peterson
1. The stream or river talks to us about dependency. How dependent are we within our everyday lives on ‘the Living Water’?
Are there areas in our own lives and in the life of our Church where we try to be self-sufficient, rather than relying on God to feed our thoughts and actions?
2. The stream talks to us about fellowship. One of the side effects of stones being gently rocked by the water is that the hard edges are gradually worn away. Have you found that experience in your spiritual life where the closer you become to people the more you are able to share the hurts and pains that hold you back?
If not, what could you do about it?
3. The stream has a source and a destination, and though these might be many hundreds of miles apart they are the life of that stream. How easy do we find it to recognize the source of our faith, to point to a moment where the clouds parted and the light appeared in our lives?
Do you feel yourself on a journey or are there obstacles in the way, stones placed in your way obstructing the flow?
Take a moment to spend some time in reflection. Imagine the stream, place your hand into it and feel the force of the water, the refreshing chill, the cleansing action.
©John Birch · Prayers written by the author may be copied freely for worship. If reproduced elsewhere please acknowledge author/website
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