Psalm 29:3-4, 11, “The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty sea. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. 11 The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.”
Waves on the beach of the lake, waves rolling through the ocean, waves rolling over the waters. There’s just something about waves.
The rhythm of the waves as they roll onto the shore and back out again. Hearing them splash against rocks or the spray as some big waves crash along the rocks. The relaxing waves as you float on the water. There’s a place around the thumb of Michigan where a stone wall separates the water, helping break up the waves before going inland. While my husband has been fishing there, I’ve enjoyed sitting along the edge of the wall listening to the waves and watching them. Each wave is unique and calming as they roll along. It’s also fun to see how high the splash will be against the rocks and wall and if they’ll get me wet.
Thinking of God’s creation and what David wrote in Psalms it seems that if you want to hear God’s voice be still and listen to the waves. ‘The voice of the Lord is over the waters’. His voice flows like the waves. It can be soft and rhythmic or big and dynamic as it moves around you and through you. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. And when God speaks His words can strengthen us and give us peace.
Anyone who has sat still by the water and breathed in the freshness knows how cleansing it can be to the soul. God is speaking in those moments encouraging and refreshing you.
If you find time and have oceans or big lakes around you, sometimes even smaller lakes can bring calm to your soul with their waves. Be still and listen for God’s voice. He is saying, “Listen to my words of life. Live in rhythm with Jesus. Find strength in me and be at peace.”
‘The voice of the Lord is over the waters.’ It’s over oceans, rivers, and lakes. It’s over your soul. Simply listen…
God is in the waves. Watch the waves and see how consistent they are. The waves can teach us about God’s grace. “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”- John 1:16.
We are sinners, we are human, and we will mess up. We will fall into temptation. We will slip into worldly habits. We are not worthy to stand before our Lord of creation. Yet, God gives us grace. What is grace?
– Grace is forgiveness, Romans 3:23-24. Our sins and mistakes separate us from God but His grace of love on the cross gives us what we need not what we deserve. Forgiveness and freedom from our sins.
– Grace saves us, 2 Timothy 1:9. Though we deserve death God gives us grace as a free gift. Nothing we do gives us grace to be forgiven and saved. It’s God’s grace given to us.
– Grace is new every day, Psalm 103:8. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go very long without making mistakes. We all are in need of God’s grace and praise the Lord it’s new every morning. Our past is put behind us and it’s a new day to become more like Jesus. A chance to stop sinning and step into freedom.
– Grace allows us to live in freedom, Romans 6:4. Not freedom to do as we please but freedom to live as God designed. God’s grace frees us from the shackles of sin and allows us to fully experience life as God intended.
Like the water splashes upon the shore, wave after wave, God’s fullness of love gives us grace upon grace. Jesus will continue to be with us through life helping in every moment. Like the waves, His love never stops, and He will always provide- 2 Corinthians 12:9.
As you watch the waves tell yourself, ‘grace upon grace’. Let God’s love fill your heart.
Lastly, the waves can remind us of God’s forgiveness. For those of us in the Great Lakes area, we have driven along all the shorelines of the Great Lakes many times. One thing is consistent with all of them. There are miles and miles and miles of water. It is a rare sight to be able to see the other side of the water and land. The Bible tells us in Micah 7:19, “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!”
On the beach where the waves roll onto the sand write something. As soon as the waves roll up onto the shore and back out, what you wrote should be gone. Imagine now what you wrote was a sin you asked the Lord for forgiveness and then watched the waves. They will take the sin and wash it away as it carries it out to the endless water never to be remembered again. This is a fun analogy that you can even share with your children and a pretty cool way to really understand forgiveness.
If God has thrown it to the sea and let it go, you too need to let it go and try not to repeat it. Satan will keep nagging at you about the sin, but you simply remind him it’s lost at sea, I am forgiven, God has washed away my sins- 1 John 1:7-9.
It never ceases to amaze me how, when we take time to really look at creation, we can see how God has left God prints for us to know Him and learn from Him. As you go about your days, see what God prints you can find where a lesson can be learned.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on ConnectWithGodDaily
Featured Image by AJS1 from Pixabay
