Treading Water

Treading Water

Treading water is a word that has been on my mind a lot lately.  When we were in St. Petersburg, Florida on vacation, it came to my mind even more.  Enduring heat indexes of over 101 degrees, we often escaped to the Gulf or the pool to keep us cool. While I was in the Gulf, I found myself treading water almost consistently.

I decided to look up the definition of treading water and this is what I found:

To maintain an upright position in water by moving the feet with a walking movement and the hands with a downward circular motion, failing to advance or make progress. 

Each time we went into the Gulf, I would walk out to where I was comfortable and then I would stop and begin treading water. This experience left me wondering why I would settle for just treading when I had the clean, beautiful, warm Gulf I could swim in. 

I came to the realization the main reason I found myself only treading water is because I was afraid of the unknowns.  What if the water became to deep? Or worse yet, what if I encountered a sea creature that I did not want to encounter.  

As I was treading water one thing I noticed was there were quite a few people out further in the deep of the Gulf. I would think: “Wow, they must be crazy!”, “You wouldn’t find me out that deep!”, or “How in the world can they go out that far!”

For many of us, I feel like this is how we are in our spiritual walk.  We make our way out into the waters following after God. Once we get out so far, we begin to grow uncomfortable about our surroundings.  Unsure of our surroundings, we begin to wonder if the water will still be safe or if it’s going to get too deep. Resulting in us stopping our forward progress and beginning the stages of treading water. 

In that moment, we are acting on fear, not faith.  We have trusted God to lead us so far, but when our surroundings became scary, we let go of His hand and stopped. Why? Because we felt it was safer where we were then to venture out any further.  

Instead of keeping ahold of God’s hand and advancing further in our pursuit of God we have stopped ourselves. We took our eyes off of Him and instead began looking at the water. Does that sound familiar?  Fear caused Peter to look at the water, and it causes us to do the same thing.  

“Come and join me,” Jesus replied. So Peter stepped out onto the water and began to walk toward Jesus. But when he realized how high the waves were, he became frightened and started to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he cried out. Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and lifted him up and said, “What little faith you have! Why would you let doubt win?”

Matthew 14:29-31  TPT

God is asking us to join Him!  He is urging us forward, to go deeper with Him. He wants us to follow Him in faith. He wants us to be continually making progress, joining the others that have already made it into the deep.  Even though it may look like it when you're filled with fear, the people in the deep aren’t crazy. They just chose to act on faith and not fear.  They were only able to get that far by following Jesus in faith.  They found freedom from their fear! They didn’t let doubt win!

Do we want God to continue leading us along in our relationship with him?  Do we desire to not be stuck treading water, but moving and advancing and making progress in our walk with God? If so, we can’t remain cautious and treading.  We can’t let doubt win. We have to make forward progress and go into the waters He’s calling us into. Reach out your hand and let Him lead you!

Ladies, We need to release our fear of the unknown!  We need to break the habit of just treading and remaining where it’s comfortable.  Move forward! We need to walk out of our comfort zones and take the steps that lead us into the deep.  I came upon the song Deeper, Deeper Still by People & Songs, a section of the lyrics that I love says:

“There is freedom in the water

There is healing in the water

Oh Jesus You're the river

And we'll never find the end”

Call on God and let Him free you from your fears and doubts. Let’s no longer just sit around failing to make progress. Take His hand and let Him lead you into freedom and healing. I can definitely be a control freak.  I have realized though that if I want to be able to go where God is leading me; if I want to experience what He has for me, then I have to let go of control and give Him complete control. 

I want to see what God has for me, I desire to be obedient, I long to submerge myself in His plans for my life.  Do you too? The whole idea can be very scary, but when you decide to activate your faith and trust in God you will obtain freedom to be able to move forward in those plans! 

There is FREEDOM in the water ladies! I don’t know about you, but that makes me so excited! So let’s release our control, release our fear and release ourselves to leave our comfort zones and decide to no longer tread water.  Embrace all that God has for us and allow Him to release more freedom into our lives!

“When you continue to embrace all that I teach, you prove that you are my true followers. For if you embrace the truth, it will release more freedom into your lives.”

John 8:31 TPT

Music For You: Deeper, Deeper Still by People & Songs