Tossed About

When I was younger, my dad used to take me out on our dinghy to do some fishing in the Bribie Island passage. We would bob up and down in that little boat when a larger boat's wake washed past us. It didn't take much for us to be swishing about. We can also get tossed about through life.

I was married at age 21 which is young for many these days, only 3 years after becoming a Christian. Those 3 years were a whirlwind of growing in faith and falling in love with my husband. It was a great time in my life. While I was at university my faith was nurtured by Student Life, a Christian organisation that reaches out to university students. They provided a protective and encouraging environment for me to learn about God and exercise my faith. But in the month after I finished uni, I got married, moved out of home to a new city, moved from the only church I had ever known and started a new job. I found the first year of marriage difficult for many reasons. But one reason being that although I had agained a wonderful husband, I had suddenly lost my supportive Christian cocoon. I spent the following 2-3 years feeling tossed about by ideas, philosophies, culture, work ethics and attitudes. All of a sudden that protective Christian "home"was gone and I had to grow up. I found myself losing my footing in my faith and began slipping into unhealthy habits and choices. I remember feeling desperate for this "tossing" to stop and I longed to feel sure footed and established in my understanding and faith. Scripture like James 1:6, 

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 

and Ephesians 4:14-15, 

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

spoke to me.  I needed to know more about my God and mature in my understanding of him.  But how?

It was around this time that I went on an Emmaus walk. It was on this walk that I recognised my need for a mentor in my life, to help me get into God's word, to pray for me and to keep me accountable. So when I got back I spoke to my pastor and within weeks his wife was mentoring me which was the beginning of a friendship that has had ongoing multiplying spiritual impacts in my life that has overflowed into the lives of other women that I nurture in bible study groups now.

Over the weeks and months of being mentored, the tossing subsided. God's words became my anchor and prayer became my lifeline. When the world's voices were pulling me in every direction, it was the sure and reliable word of God that I found dependable and trustworthy. Why? Because I believed by faith that the bible is God's revelation of himself to me.  I began to  love God's word and to know his character is completely trustworthy and true, and I began applying his teaching into my life. Remember the parable of the wise and foolish builders? 

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.   (Matthew 7:24-27)

The foolish builder built his life on a foundation of  choices based on listening to voices other than God and when life's storms came the foundation was revealed to be unstable unreliable and untrustworthy. But the wise builder who chose to build his life on a foundation of God's word and applied God's truth into his life found his foundation to be  reliable and sure during life's hardships.

I chose Jesus as the anchor  in my life, steadying me through rough seas.  So dear friend, who are you listening to?  Who will you choose to guide you?  Which way will you go?

Question :  Do you need a prayer partner, mentor or close friend to help you stay "on course" for God? I encourge you to seek out the help you need, as a life that is anchored in Christ, is a life with a purpose, secured and protected.

Photos :   ChristianPhotos.Net - Free High Resolution Photos for Christian Publications