This morning I was inspired to do a twist on the age old classic – egg in-a-frame – by adding bacon to it.  Simple, but delicious!  Even my two-year old enjoyed it. Honestly, I don’t really like toast, I am not a huge fan of eggs, of course I like bacon, but when you put them all together it satisfies the soul and provides the energy to get through the day.

Isn’t that how the body of Christ works?  I don’t really like Smith, and Jude bugs me, and Fred and I get along well, but when you put us all together, led by Christ, our souls are satisfied, and miraculous power wells up and overflows to the people and to the world.

As I eat, I talk with my two-year old, Simon, and ponder our trip to the ocean over the weekend.  As soon as he saw the water, he got very excited and wanted to go play in it.  As he entered the water, with me at his side, a small wave caused him to lose his balance and he fell.  He was so upset, and I could also clearly see fear in his eyes.

I instantly reassured him and helped him up, telling him I wouldn’t let him get hurt if he held my hand.

He looked right at me, as if to say, “agreed!”, and he turned and ran, hand in hand with me, straight into the waves.  I was amazed to see such faith in him. Some big waves hit him, but I kept my promise and he never fell or got hurt.  It was a blast!!

I immediately thought about how God has made similar promises to me. He calls me to be united with Him and other believers to find stability

“be built up together until we all reach unity in the faith. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves” Eph 4:14 (para)

His word says that I am safe in His hands, and as long as I hold firm to my faith and trust in Him, He will not lead me to ruin

“Anyone who believes in Jesus will never be put to shame. – Rom 10:11

But in pondering this, I can’t help but think about how many times I let go of Daddy’s hand, and found myself on my behind, soaked-and-wet, crying like a toddler.  I realized looking back at those times that even then God was by my side, limiting the damage and reaching out to me; wanting to restore me to my feet and to His hand.

My two year-old displayed this perfectly, in that after a while he got so comfortable with not falling that he forgot that my stabilizing hand was the reason for his not falling.  His grip got looser, and looser, until a wave almost knocked him down again – had my grip not tightened to hold him.  How exactly like our experience with God – as our faith in him shifts to faith in ourselves. Luckily, even a loose grip is more than enough for God to keep us safe. His grip is more than sufficient!

What is amusing was how I myself gained confidence in myself as being stable and unmovable.  We looked on at a larger oncoming wave, and as it hit us, I was prepared and kept Simon stable. Afterwards, we were both laughing at how big it was when suddenly a tiny little wave sputtered up and almost knocked us BOTH over.  How like life this is, that we can manage even the worst situations if we anticipate it, but even the smallest things can knock us down when we are unprepared.

I asked God about this for myself, and He spoke to me in a vision, comparing me to a baby tiger – with a baby growl.  I have enemies in the spiritual realm that are very afraid of my Father, but they are less afraid of me because I don’t have a history of showing the power that’s inside of me.  I may be a small tiger, but I still have more than enough power in my claws and bite, and in the power that comes when I call out to my Dad for help, to devastate any enemy.  Because I have neither believed nor “walked in” the identity that God says is true of me, I have been easily destabilized even by life’s smallest inconveniences.  It is time to put a stop to this, and God has shown me that my “believing Him” is the path for me now to walk to no longer be so easily tossed about.

There’s so much more I’d like to say here, but to keep it short (er) I will say only this: If you have believed in Jesus, you have become a part of a perfect mix of ingredients, which when brought together will result in incredible stability and even power in your life and the lives of those around you.  I challenge us all to seek God on what that means for us individually.