"The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." Isaiah 32:17 (NIV)

When I was very young, my dad taught my three sisters and me how to water-ski. You might imagine the amount of patience that took! We would go out in our family boat into the middle of the lake where one of us girls would jump into the water. Then we would each take our turn around the lake as many times as we could go without falling.

Once you fell, another sister was waiting to jump in and take your place. If I fell too soon, before I was ready to give my turn up, I would struggle with all of my might to grab the ski rope back and try getting up again before another sister jumped into the water to take my spot.

I remember gathering up all the 8-year-old strength I could muster to get to that rope back into my hands. I floundered and struggled in the water with all that gear attached to me - a life jacket that seemed the size of a small car and water skis that seemed a mile long. I would get exhausted trying to get to that rope in time not to lose my turn.

One day I remember my dad calling out, "Pat, just relax, lay back on your life jacket and I will bring the rope to you!" And he did. I would rest in the water and my dad would drive the boat slowly and carefully around me until the ski rope would just float right into my hands. No struggle, no fear of missing it, no one jumping in and taking my place.

After 22 years of women's ministry, I have often found myself or watched a sister in her struggle to grab something she was afraid she might loose. A ministry spot, a child, a husband, a friend.

Sometimes, we feel that if we don't struggle and strive, we will lose our "turn." That somehow, what God has called us to do, have or be, will be missed or that another "sister" might jump in and take our spot. When those times come in my life, I try to remember the words of my dad, "Pat, just let the rope come to you."

Maybe you can relate. Have you been struggling to make something happen in your life or to protect a position or opportunity that you are afraid you will miss if you don't strive for it?

Let's listen to the words of our Abba Father, let's just relax in the moment and trust God to "bring the rope to us." If it's His best for us, He will do just that.

Abba Father, thank You for reminding me that You have control of the boat in my life. You will not let me miss my turn, Lord, when I'm following You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Related Resources: Do You Know Jesus?

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Related Resources:

Do You Know Jesus?



Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be: A 90-day Guide to Living the Proverbs 31 Life by Donna Partow

A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God's Love by Max Lucado

Application Steps:

Write down each thing that is going on in your life that feels like a struggle to you. List the things you want to do that seem to be slipping away. List relationships not going the way you wanted.

List dreams not coming to fruition. Write anything that creates a feeling of stress or struggle in your heart. Then read Jeremiah 29:11 and pray it over those situations.

Reflections:

Consider the things that you have written and ask yourself: Have I been in this spot before? How and when has God shown Himself faithful to complete something in my life without my having to do a single thing but reach out and take hold of it?

Power Verses:

Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (NIV)

© 2009 Pat Layton. All rights reserved.