Deeper Places
“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.”
Job 11:7-9
When I was a kid and I would go swimming with my family, I remember all I really wanted to do was be able to go to the deep end where all the grown-ups got to go. It was kind of a forbidden area of the pool for little kids my age, so of course that made it more appealing. At some point, though, we all get tall enough to safely be able to move into the deep end. Funny thing is, some people never take this opportunity with God. God offers them every opportunity to move into 6-foot deep water but they refuse and stay in the 3-foot end of the pool. See, the 3-foot end of the pool is shallow, and shallow is sometimes much more comfortable for us as human beings. When the water is so deep we can’t touch bottom, we get scared because we no longer feel in control. How do we trust that we won’t drown? The flip side is that staying in the shallow end never quite satisfies. It’s not enough water to cover us up so we can be fully saturated in it, and so half of us stays dry. The same is true with our spiritual life. If we refuse to move into the deeper things of God and mature in our relationship with Him, part of us will always be dry and unfulfilled. God may keep us at a certain level for a time but once we’ve gotten the hang of things there, He will call us forward to something deeper. And that process will never end as long as we are on this earth, because His limits are “deeper than the depths below”. No matter how long you’ve known the Lord, there is always a deeper level towards which we can move.
What might this look like in the practical sense? Perhaps God is asking you to use more of your gifts, talents or abilities to serve His people. Perhaps God is asking you to devote more time to being with Him in prayer and intercession. Perhaps He is pulling you towards more in-depth Bible study, or deeper relationships with those around you. Ask God this week to show you if He’s calling you to something deeper and to reveal to you what specific area that is in. Then trust that the blessing you receive will be more than worth the risk to plunge into those depths. Once you’ve tasted a deeper level of God’s presence, you can’t go back into the shallow end! Nothing else is as satisfying as Him.