Salt Water

We just returned home from a vacation in The Grand Cayman Islands. The water is extremely buoyant because of the very high level of salt in the water.  This means you can basically float without any flotation device at all. It’s amazing. We were all treading water, which really doesn’t take much effort at all. It’s entirely possible to relax without getting exhausted for hours just treading water because you are basically floating.

I noticed my daughter hadn’t realized yet she didn’t need to work so hard to stay afloat. She was toiling. She was working and laboring so hard and looked really exhausted in a very short time. I tried to explain she just needed to completely relax and trust the buoyancy of the saltwater to keep her afloat.

She simply needed to trust and relax.

I noticed after the first day, she finally began to trust the buoyant water enough to relax and allow herself to float without any hard work at all. Her toiling days were over and for the rest of the trip she was totally relaxed. The buoyancy of the water never let her down…not once.

We arrived home after a relaxing week, and I found the list in my head growing bigger and bigger with things that needed to be done. There were a few things I’d been praying for in the way of provision and nothing was happening yet as far as the need. I found myself beginning to toil. I was working hard to try and find a solution in my own strength.

I was already exhausted in a short amount of time just like Maria trying to tread water. The Lord reminded me of my words to Maria… “You simply need to trust and relax.”

I realized I needed to trust God, who has always provided, to meet every need. I needed to stop toiling. I simply needed to trust and relax. My Heavenly Father has never let me down, not once.

Dear Heavenly Father- Thank you for meeting every need according to your riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Help me to relax and trust You knowing you will meet every need the way you desire to meet it and in your timing. Help me to simply trust and relax.

“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? ‘For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.