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Swimming --- Progress

Good Morning!  Again, I'm eager to share, so I'm going to jump right in (yes, another pun).

I've chosen to be a swimmer.  I'm standing in the pool.  I can see the black line running from where I am to where I want to be.  Standing there doesn't get me where I want to be.  Knowing I must follow the line won't get me there.  I must act!

I can walk or swim, but I have to act --- move!  Walking is slower, but it's forward progress.  Swimming is easier.  When I'm submerged in the water, I become buoyant.  I won't go so far as to say weightless, but you get what I mean...I'm not carrying my own weight when submerged in the water.

Swimming takes discipline and requires work.  I know no other way to put it.  I have to get there before I can swim and once in the water I must use my muscles and the techniques I've learned in order to swim.

Spiritual lesson?  I can say I'm a follower of Jesus all I want, but until I put action behind my words they are just that, words.  There is no trust when I do not take the action of following.  Jesus is the Living Water and when I'm swimming He makes me buoyant and causes what I do to accomplish way more than I would accomplish outside Him.  And His buoyancy allows me to expend a lot less energy compared to the amount of progress I make.

Try walking in waist high water versus swimming in that same depth of water.  Now imagine being surrounded by Jesus as you go the way He shows you to go.  He's not only showing us the way to go, but He is also making it easier for us to go His way.  It still requires discipline and action motivated by trust that Jesus is who He says He is and that He is able to do what He says He will do.

James 2:14 & 26 says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?  Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

LORD, I want to trust You enough to follow You.  Protect me from shrinking back from the hard work of following.  Thank you for holding me up as I follow.  Amen!

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