Depth Perception

"The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 2 Timothy 4:18 "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name." Psalm 91:14 "...and I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17(b)-18 Let me begin by saying 'thank you' to those who have been praying for me and my family for the past few weeks. For those of you who don't know, Canaan had a terrible stomach virus and my grandmother's health has begun to severely decline. Canaan is well but my grandmother is continuing to collect fluid around her heart. Please continue to pray for her. Many of you have been asking about my health as well. I praise God to say that He answered alot of my questions through the visit with my vascular surgeon on Thursday! New medicine is going to be given to me to try and help control the problems caused by the blockages on my left side.Thank you, also, for patiently waiting for God to reveal to me another post. God's timing is always perfect. So, I know that God will use this post to speak to your heart as He did mine... Every time I have been to a public swimming pool, I always see the following scene: A mom, dad, or adult (of some importance to a child), standing in the water with their arms out stretched. They are reaching to an "unsure" child that is standing on the side of the pool. I always hear the adult say, "Come on. Jump to me! I promise I will catch you. I promise I will not drop you. Jump to me!" You can see the child's mind turning and assessing his/her surroundings, weighing the risks of jumping. They crouch down and get ready... then they back out. Why? It's not like they are jumping to strangers, right? I, myself have had this "pool" conversation with Canaan too. I found that when Canaan was smaller, he jumped to me without hesitation. But as he became older, it took more coaxing from me or from Shane. What causes the child to hesitate? Why must they ponder jumping out on the faith that this person, he/she trusts, will catch them? The reason is the same when we, as God's children, 'hesitate' to jump into the arms of a God we supposedly trust and that has 'never missed'. The reason? We, and those children on the side of a pool, are more concerned with the depth of the water than the depth of the love of the One who is waiting to catch us... Psychologist have studied depth perception for years. Countless numbers of tests and studies have been conducted to find out just how early humans recognize depth. One test was called the "Visual Cliff". In this particular test, a flat glass table was used. One side was considered 'flat', while the other side of the table presented an illusion of a drop off(with clear glass). Infants, who were able to crawl, were placed on the table and urged to crawl toward the pretend cliff. Most of the infants crawled, but stopped just shy of the pretend drop off. To many psychologists, this showed that even as early as infants, we have a sense of depth perception. As babies, the first thing we learn is our dependency on our caregivers, usually our parents. We learn that if we cry, we are responded to and our needs are met. We learn to trust. I noticed that during this stage, Canaan, at the swimming pool, would freely jump to my arms no matter the danger because he was only acting upon his trust for me. As we continue to grow, we learn that there is danger around us. We learn this through physical injuries (Lots of band aids!). As our mind learns to assess danger surrounding us and what 'could happen', it becomes harder to trust. We learn that humans fail, even our parents. The child, standing on the side of the pool, becomes clouded by the danger of the water, rather than focusing on the trust they have for the parent. What about our spiritual depth perception? Could it be that we are so busy giving God our excuses of why we can't give Him control of our problems, that we are standing, paralyzed on the side? Perhaps you are going through a difficult time of one problem after another in your life. You have asked God to 'help' you, yet you find you are in the same place you began. When you read His word, you find scriptures on how you can trust Him. When you talk to your Godly friends, you hear them tell you that you must let go of trying to control. And in your heart, you feel the Holy Spirit tell you to step out on faith and that God will help you if you trust Him. God is speaking to you. The reason I lacked a relationship with God for so many years is that I did not realize Ephesians 3:17-18... to know the depth of His love. Maybe you only know the 'pits' of the world, the heartaches, and struggles. Tell God you want to know the depth of His love in an intimate relationship with Him. This is what increases our faith. I noticed one more thing about Canaan and the other children when they stood in hesitation on the side of the pool: they only jumped when they locked eyes with the one they trusted. The more Canaan looked around, the more frightened he became. But when I said, "Look at me and jump," it changed everything. Where are your eyes and to what or whom are they locked in on? Only looking at God through His word will keep you from 'backing out' in your faith. Many of you have major decisions to make in your life right now. Fear is creeping in because the jump of faith to God would be so crazy! All I can tell you is, out of all the times His children have 'jumped to Him', He never missed...from Genesis through Revelation :-) Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, forgive me for the times I have doubted the very One who gave me eternal life. Why would I doubt a God who made a way for me to escape Hell? I know everything you do for me is for my good. I want to grow in knowing you each and every day. You are incapable of failure. Help those who read this and are struggling, to turn everything over to you. Help them and help me to trust in who you are and the power of your word. Thank you for your faithfulness...