Playing Through the Pain: Trust & RestIsampula

Trust & Rest

A few years ago I had the opportunity of a lifetime to experience baptism again… but this time in the Jordan River. It was an overwhelmingly spiritual and emotional experience. 

Water is not just a liquid that we drink or bathe in, but it has a unique power. Did you know that it has been scientifically proven that water has a memory? Go ahead… Google it. The Resonance Science Foundation puts it this way: “By examining individual drops of water at an incredibly high magnification, scientists have been able to physically see that each droplet of water has its own individual microscopic pattern. A pattern that details its memory.” A memory that includes the people that it has come into contact with. 

Think about it… if rocks will cry out, then surely water can remember.

For me the opportunity to experience baptism again wasn’t so that the water could wash away my sins, but so that I could interact with the same water that had experienced the transformative power of the ONE who had been baptized in it before me – JESUS.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist interrupts his own preaching while baptizing in the Jordan when he sees Jesus arrive. 

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

In the next moments, as John baptizes Jesus, submerging him under the water, something powerful occurred.  The heavens opened and the voice of the Father was heard speaking over the Lamb of God saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Wherever you are in your journey of transformation I want today to be the day that you realize that the same way the Father spoke that affirmation over  Jesus – He has already spoken the same over you.
 

The same way God spoke to David when he called him a man after his own heart, God is speaking to you. 

The same way God spoke purpose and destiny into Jeremiah, God is speaking those into you. 

The same way God called Moses from the burning bush; God is calling you.

No matter how difficult your personal transformation process has been, it is worth it.  I want to encourage you to lean into what God is saying to you with the same intentionality that Jesus had when He encountered the Father as he emerged from the waters of the Jordan River. 

This is the third YouVersion Reading plan in our six-part series We have spent the first two months of plans discussing the development and preparation that went into the life of the young not yet king David. We’ve also looked at how this story gives us the recipe for personal development & preparation. This month I want to invite you and challenge you to tune in each day to listen to God speak over you through David's words in the book of Psalms. 

Transformation is such a needed process that each of us goes through. Too often, it is the loneliest when we are in our own cocoon, like the faithful caterpillar that chooses to grow through to become a butterfly. So then allow these days to be the encouragement you need to simply TRUST & REST. Allow God, through the voice of David to bring you the encouragement needed for your personal transformation process. 

Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.