The river of God is still flowing. The further it runs out from the place of worship designated to encounter God, the more life and growth is springing up way beyond any temple walls. And so we press deeper into God’s love and life, knowing it may take us further out and into yet more life and activity as we go.
In the vision of Ezekiel 47, the man leading Ezekiel into God’s river goes deeper and deeper with him a stage at a time. And so we find ourselves now in ‘water that was up to the waist’. Today we choose to be led by God up past our ankles, up past our knees, and up to our waist in the river of God’s presence and activity.
Waist-deep, we are wading into the deeper waters of student mission. This is new territory now, heading into the places where students who have never heard the good news about Jesus are splashing around trying to navigate life. Waist-deep our feet are still on the river bed, our arms could maybe reach the river bank if we tried, but we are committed to heading out further away from our comfort zone edges. We must wade deeper, if we are to meet people not already in our church community or friendship groups. We must get waist-deep, even if it’s harder going, to meet those who may not even know they are invited into God’s big family.
Waist-deep prayers move beyond existing Christian friends and into praying for our housemates, coursemates, the people we know by name on campus and the people we want to know by name this year.
Waist-deep into God’s river we begin to see there is so much more out there, the river seems to be flowing wider, deeper and cultivating more life than we could have imagined when we only had water up to our ankles.
Our prayers begin to shift towards the freshers who will show up to the strange new world of the covid-changed campus. We realise we must wade out and wade into welcoming them and connecting them to community by all the means we can. We start to imagine what wading into the online space could look like beyond our existing spheres of presence. We start to wonder what Jesus might do, how Jesus might move, as we choose to press deeper into our commitment to being and sharing good news with our campuses.
Father God,
Give us the strength to wade deeper into your river.
Help us not to settle for a knee-deep faith where we stay in Christian bubbles.
Jesus, lead us waist-deep, committed and convicted that we must share good news with people who have never heard about you.
Holy Spirit, help us have dreams and visions of new ways of wading in to welcome freshers and build community with those looking to belong somewhere at university.
Thank you that it is your hand that leads us into your river of life, for the sake of full life being found in you.
Amen.
Missed the previous devotional? Read it here.
