Waves of Change

“The seas have lifted up, oh, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. He is mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord, on high is mighty!” Psalm 93:3-4

I’ve always loved standing on the shore listening to the pounding of the waves. I see its vastness as I scan the horizon and I feel so small in the middle of its mighty roar or calm in its quiet stillness. The ocean calms and relaxes me; but, at the same time, the power and the energy in those waves is awe inspiring to me. I have a certain reverence for the ocean because it shows the calmness and power of God in His creation. “This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that it’s waves roar-the Lord Almighty is His name!” Jer. 31:35

How can something so calm, relaxing and beautiful be so powerful and strong at the same time? When you stand in the waves, they rush in and out with different levels of energy with each roll that comes ashore. They are always different and continually changing and that’s the beauty in them too. Not only are some calm and some powerful but they are unpredictable. Even so, they connect my heart to God.

Standing on the sand, each wave feels different coming in and going out. Like the ocean waves, I love to go to church feeling different coming out than I felt going in. What the Holy Spirit does each week is unpredictable but I feel more connected to God. I come out feeling recharged and full of power to go thru the next week. Other times, I am just filled with calm and peace. There’s just something calm and yet powerful after worshiping and hearing the Word.

And, my prayer life? I want to feel different coming out of my prayer time than I did going in. I want to be changed. I want to connect to God in my time of prayer. If I truly left things at His feet for Him to take care of, I should feel lighter, relieved and different. I want there to be a change. With the calm and peace, I have an energy to move on because I have released something to Him. I want there to be change between going in and coming out.

When the waves of the Holy Spirit come on shore in my worship and prayer time, I want to release out to Him what is bringing anxiety and stress to my life and for Him to take it back out to sea. Sometimes I may need to get out of the shallow and go deeper. That’s okay. We all start out as a child, even spiritually. We enjoy just our toes in the gentle, calm waves. I am to the point I want to understand and experience the full volume and power of the waves.

When the waves roll back in, I want the power to have changed me and made me different. I might get that calm peace or I might get that renewed energy and power but I want to go deep enough that He flows over me and I feel a change in experiencing the fullness of His waves.

I want to be like a seashell that came from the waves and it carries the ocean’s echoes home with me so even when I’ve left the beach and gone back home I remember the waves-the change in me. I want a reminder of the ocean waves that don’t even come close to exhausting His greatness!

I hope the waves in your life drive you to go deeper toward Christ and affect all of you so that you are humbled by the fact that the waves are nothing compared to the great ocean of His vastness.

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.” Psalm 29:3-4