Oswald Chambers writes today (My Utmost for His Highest) of John 7:38 (streams of living water”), of persistence and rivers. Among other qualities, he notes that a river “is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers.” Chambers writes:
“You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it…. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source.”
When a wall arises, some barrier, I tend to be inclined to simply push against the wall. Granted, I might possibly, eventually push/knock the wall down (picture that occurring by me repeatedly beating my head against it) but there is a lesson from the river – one can be “victoriously persistent” by less direct approaches that are not as egocentric.
It occurs to me that perhaps the best example of this in my lifetime was the ultimate destruction of the Berlin Wall. Despite countries and armies being supremely able to directly and immediately tear down the wall for nearly thirty years since its creation, despite President Regan’s Brandenburg Gate speech where he urged Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” it was ultimately the forces of freedom that were “victoriously persistent.”
Be “indifferent to the obstacle” and “keep right at the Source.”
It occurs to me... 