The River’s Edge
By Ginger Smith, North Cleveland Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee

Have you ever felt like you were drowning in your situation?  Have you felt as if you were going down for the third time and you would surely never come back to the surface, and would give anything to have someone throw you a life preserver?  Have you felt that the anxiety and fear were going to entangle you and pull you down beneath the surface and choke the very life out of you?  I can almost guarantee everyone reading this has felt that way at some point in her life.

First, let me begin by saying that it is my distinct privilege to have the opportunity to write this devotional.  And it is also my prayer that this will be a tool of ministry to people regardless of gender, race, and age.  As a very short summation of who I am and why I feel called to write this, I will tell you that I feel overwhelmingly compelled to try to bring light and hope to readers.  

Ten years ago (February 15, 1997), God touched me and healed me of major clinical depression, anxiety attacks, fear of death, the hurt of childhood sexual abuse, and 250 anti-anxiety pills a month (anti-depressants and tranquilizers).  Since that time, I have become a minister and been led by God to help bring light and hope to others in similar situations.  I think we have suffered in silence too long.  Anti-anxiety drugs are the number one prescribed drugs in this country, even among those who attend church.  That is a sad but true fact.  But I am living proof that God can take you in your broken, messed up, desperate, hopeless situation (in YOUR eyes), and turn it, and YOU, around and use you to help others.  You are not alone!

It is a statistical fact that 75-90% of all doctor’s visits are due to stress and anxiety.  The enemy wants you to think you are alone in whatever you are going through and that there is NO WAY you could ever come out of this or even tell anyone how you feel…they would surely think you were crazy.  After all, how do you explain something to someone that you may not understand yourself?

“Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8, 9, NIV).

“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20, NKJV).

Over ten years ago, I was going down for the third time when Jesus reached down and pulled me up.  I couldn’t get to Him, so He came to where I was!  (He WILL do that, you know?)  One day, when I wasn’t even looking, God showed up with MY life preserver…HIMSELF!  As the glory of the Lord came upon me, I was delivered from everything and also had a near 100-pound weight loss as a result of the weight of the glory of God coming upon me.  He pulled me up out of the torrent of the river and sat me on the safety of the river’s edge.

“…for over all the glory shall be a canopy (a defense of divine love and protection)” (Isaiah 4:5, AMP).

“I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.  The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me” (Psalm 18:3-5, NIV).

So, as I sat at my computer praying about how to write this Bible study, I looked over at the water fountain in my office.  The sound of the running water has such a calming effect.  As I began reflecting on some of the events of my life, some good, some not so good, something occurred to me…smooth water makes little sound.  Our lives are like a river.  Sometimes it runs deep and smooth; sometimes shallow, allowing rocks and debris to be seen.  Naturally, the calmer, deeper water is easier to navigate.  All we have to do is drift along, floating with little or no occurrence of trouble.  But there is also no adventure and we learn nothing along the way.  I began thinking of my water fountain and my “river experiences” and subsequent healing and deliverance, and how it correlated in my life.

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me” (Psalm 18:16, 17, NIV).

Then it occurred to me!  It is actually the rocks and debris that make the sounds that calm anyone who listens to it.  Suddenly it dawned on me, THAT is like our lives.  It is when the water is low that it is troubled.  The rocks are at the surface, along with the debris that used to lie on the bottom, unseen by the human eye.  It isn’t that the rocks and debris have moved, but our water level of our river has gone down!  It is then that our lives have to be so carefully navigated.  But how odd it still was, when I realized it is the rocks that actually make the sound that make so many run to the river to listen.  So, what seemed to be OUR troubles, tragedies, and turmoil actually turn out to be others source of peace and calm, IF we will allow God to use them . . . and us.

“…but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20, NIV).

What did I learn from this?  Though it would be much easier on us to drift down the river of our lives with no rocks, there would also be no beautiful babbling brooks sounding in the distance.  And it’s in the rapids of our lives, just as a river, that we learn our greatest lessons.  We discover what had been beneath the surface, unseen by human eyes, and how to REALLY trust God to help us navigate through it.  Just as people flock to the river to listen to the serene sounds that come from the water flowing over the rocks, people will flock to us to learn what we have learned from, and more importantly HOW we came out of, our “river” experiences.  Others need to know that they can navigate their rivers, whether the water is calm or like “The Devil’s Hole” we have here in the Ocoee River.  So, in essence, we don’t learn as much from our calm river experiences.  We learn from our rapids; how to navigate the dangerous currents, and how to steer through our rocks and debris.  We can help those that come after us; guide them down their river.  Their raft may be leaky, old, and they may not have perfect equipment, but with our help, and especially God’s help, He will guide us all down our rivers.  And when we get to the river’s end, when we’ve finished our “ride,” we can get out and can sit on the bank and listen to the sounds of the river from whence we just came.  We can know we have survived the river’s torrent that tried to take us under.  And, we can have the pleasure and great joy in knowing WE have not only made it to the river’s edge, but we can now help someone else navigate their rapids to THEIR rivers edge.  Listen…can you hear it?

“Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.  When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your love, O Lord, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul” (Psalms 94:17-19, NIV).

“…so where the river flows everything will live” (Ezekiel 47:9, NIV).

AMEN AND AMEN!!

www.gingersmith.org or www.myspace.com/gingersmithministries

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