Just Floating Along God's River

…There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

 I was in the corner store of our neighborhood the other day, and the clerk, who I have been praying for and periodically witnessing to says to me, “Hey man, I need to tell you something really important.” So I lean in to listen and he says, “You have some special power I wanted to tell you about.” Well, I was flattered, to say the least, but I assured him that I have no special powers. Again he said I did, so I asked him "What is this special power he thought I had?"

So he goes on to remind me of the time about three years ago when I had told him to come outside and look at this painting I had in the back of my pickup truck. It was an old, oil painting that was tearing away from the frame. I had it in the truck because someone had donated some furniture to our transitional housing complex, and we didn’t need any paintings. That day he had mentioned that he was just moving into a new apartment, and it was looking pretty bare. So I asked him if he wanted that painting to spruce up his place a little bit. It was a nice painting. I don’t even recall what it was a painting of, today. But he surely remembers.

He goes on to tell me how he stared at that oil painting for a couple of days, and then decided he would go out and by a canvas and some oil paints. Well as he’s relaying this story to me, grinning from ear to ear, he says, “That was the day I discovered that I had a passion for art.” This guy is about twenty-four or five years old, and was already in college while working at the store, but now he had stumbled upon a new found love. The next semester he enrolls in an art course. He showed me some pictures of his paintings that he has on his cell phone, and this guy is really, really good.

To make a long story short, he believes that I have the power to show people their destinies, or something along those lines. Again I assured him that I have no special power for any of that. But what I did tell him was, every morning when I get up, I pray and ask God to use me however He will that day. And obviously, Jesus wanted to show this guy that He had placed a gift in him that until this day, he wasn’t aware of. Jesus just used me to do it. I told him that God directs people’s steps that are committed to Him, and want to be used to bring Him glory. Sometimes we are aware that God is directing us, most times we are not.

I believe that there is a flow to the moving of the Spirit of God, kind of like a river flows. I believe that when we are plugged in to our Lord through prayer and intimacy, it’s like we are just floating along God’s river. And this makes Jesus very glad. You can’t even imagine what stock I now have to be able to speak into this young man’s life. I now have influence like I never had before. I firmly believe God is up to something in this young man’s life. What do you think?

…To be continued

A River Runs Through It

Psalm 46:4a “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God…”

            When I think of rivers, I picture a steady, flowing source of life giving water. I know wherever a river flows there is life. A river can bring life and satisfaction to huge swaths of land and crops. A healthy, flowing river can be used to water farms, animals, and people for miles around it. In many parts of the world, and especially in the Bible lands, the rivers are such a source of nourishment that people even worshipped (past and present tense) them. You only need to read the Old Testament books to see how dependent the Egyptians were on the Nile.

            Here in this verse, there is a river (life-giving flow) that makes the “city of God” glad. I’m sure this writer may have Jerusalem in mind on an earthly note, but it makes me think of the steady stream of souls into heaven. It also brings to my mind the cleansing flow that a body of believers can be to the world around it. We are called to be cleansed by the washing of the water of the word, and we are also to have fountains of living water coming out of our most inward parts. We as committed believers can actually be the force that God uses to stock the ponds of Paradise. As in all things, Jesus infuses us with his love, his spirit, and his word, while we turn and share with our faith community, and the world at large. We become his little streams spilling out in every direction all over the place.

Being a Christian, and in recovery, and a staff member at Grace Place Properties (transitional housing & Recovery program), I get to spend a lot of time around folks who are struggling to exit horribly, addictive lifestyles. I get to witness on a daily basis the wonderful works of God. I get to be involved in having discussions and informal meetings in which people sit around and tell each other how good God has been in there lives recently.

Earlier today, one of our participants was sitting around with others of us, sharing how God had answered his prayer to see his kids on Father’s Day! Let me tell you, just hearing how the Lord had shaped the circumstances to make that near impossibility happen for him, was like taking a gigantic drink of cold water out of a river flowing with God’s mercy. I could tell you a thousand stories just like that one in which people who have not been around the river of God’s blessing and protection, have begun to come alive with amazement at just how much God loves them, and how much and long he has been waiting to have their attention to show them. He really shows up and shows out when we just trust him.

I have many, many more thoughts on this verse. So stay tuned for the next river ride we’ll take as soon as I can get it all down on paper. Be blessed!

…To be continued.