Fish Out of Water

I remember feeling unique as a child. Actually, strange is a better word. I even wondered if my parents adopted me, but similarities in familial features negated that idea. Later, I learned of the “middle child” syndrome and strongly considered that. Then someone “enlightened” me to Type A and B personalities, left-brain, right-brain, and a host of other diverse personality traits and human behaviors, which only added to my character confusion. 

Pubescent personality phobia is likely a typical quandary for many youth, but I continued to carry this unanswered confusion with me well into adulthood. As I look back now, I think perhaps that a large portion of that quandary lay in the fact that God had called me out as His child, and I neglected to assume the proper position to which He called me, leaving me feeling like a fish out of water for many years.

And fish out of water cannot function at full capacity, nor can they do what fish were created to do. Instead, they flop around on the muddy shoreline of isolation, gasping desperately for life-giving water, which is exactly what I did for several years in my personal life as well as in my spiritual life. 

For many of us as believers, we fail to recognize God’s call on our lives. Though many seem to “get by” on their own for years, just as I did, with lazy church attendance and an even lazier prayer life, I learned that only when we begin living the life in which God intends do we truly feel absolute fulfillment. Only Christ brings order to the character confusion resulting from the perplexing litany of contemporary worldly wisdom and psychological gurus. 

“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace,” (1 Cor. 14:33). Additionally, “God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7) 

As believers in a dark world, we are in fact “unique” in a spiritual sense, but seen by the world as strange. We are adopted as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. (Eph. 1:5-6) 

The enemy however, seeks to frustrate the intentions of God by administering confusion, doubt, and fear into the minds of believers, leaving us feeling as though we just don’t fit in with our Kingdom family. He desires that we rejoin the self-centered, self-seeking, psychobabble ways of the world. He rejoices in watching us suffocate on the shores of isolation. 

God’s Word tells us to “be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

“For the purpose of the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)

Hallelujah!

God created us to inhabit the earth, to commune with Him, possess that which He has provided, and to seek Him and find Him, because He is not far from any of us, for in Him only do we draw our every breath of true fulfilling life. (Acts 17:26, 27) In Him, we live, move, and exist, 'For we are His children.' (Acts 17:28)

God did not create fish to be apart from water; neither did He create us to be apart from Him. (John 3:16, John 7:38) God desires for us to assume our proper position in Christ, drinking deeply from the fountain of Living Water, while recognizing and receiving all that He has given to us to possess. 

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Eph. 2:10 

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:14

“And you shall take possession of the land and live in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.” (Num. 33:53)

Again…Hallelujah!

 

Eternal God, You are so holy, and worthy of all our worship and praise. Father, thank you for stirring up our spirits to love You God, to seek after You and commune with You. Forgive us for the times we ignored Your call, and sought to fill Your rightful place with people, places or things of the world. You are the very air we breathe, every move we make, our order-bringing, life-giving, purpose-restoring Living Water, and we bless You Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.