EZEKIEL 47: 1-9, 12
Our fear of losing control is bound up with our struggle to trust—a weakness that extends all the way back to Eden and our First Parents. God knows and understands this weakness and thus gently and gradually trains us to trust him and forgo our desperate need to be in control of our lives and destinies. Ezekiel’s vision of the water flowing from beneath the threshold of the temple illustrates that in training us in trust, grace begins its work as that ankle-deep stream and that gently laps at our heels. As our trust slowly deepens, grace becomes that knee-deep (but still unthreatening) rivulet we can easily cross. The waist-deep and swiftly-flowing river is yet another, more challenging, and penultimate stage of our letting go of control. Then, finally, when the river can no longer be waded across, we are called to entrust ourselves to its saving power so that with our cooperative swimming this water will bring us safely to the opposite shore of redemption. And so, concerning your trust in God, the question becomes: Are you presently walking through ankle-deep, or knee-deep waters? Or are you already battling through waters that are waist-high? If so, what is holding you back from finally letting go and allowing the saving waters of grace to bear you safely to the other shore and into the eternal embrace of the Father?