Week Three: Day Two
The Story
Anna remembered the day when a switch was flipped in her spiritual life. Something happened that changed her thinking forever. She was watching a pastor on television as she was surfing channels when she heard it. “God does not have it out for you.”
During Anna’s beginning years of her adult life, she believed that God did not love her and had it out for her because, in her mind, she had caused her parents’ divorce. She’d used those very words so many times in hurtful remembrance. It was those simple, restorative words from a pastor she didn’t even know, that brought freedom.
You see, those simple words changed the course of her life forever. She had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior when she was young, but she hadn’t turned her life toward him in any recognizable fashion. If you had said that she was a Christian, you could just as easily have said she was agnostic or Buddhist. Her life was spiritually uninteresting.
That day, Anna got down on her knees and prayed her own prayer to God. As you read the prayer you realize the way the Holy Spirit must have helped with the prayer. She did not know where these incredible words were coming from. “God, I know you do not have it out for me. You want the best for me. I may go through trials and I may entertain failure but you walk alongside me. I will go where you go and I will stay where you tell me to stay. I thank you for Jesus and His work on the cross, I commit my life to Him again. Amen.”
A sense of unbridled freedom swept across every muscle in Anna’s body. It was as if a weight had been lifted. She knew deep inside that Jesus had freed her from the lie that she was the one who had caused her parents’ divorce. Those many years of rejecting God were gone in one fell swoop. Anna knew that God loved her deeply. She now saw God for who he is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Devotion
Water is a pretty amazing molecular combination. Too much of it and you get into trouble. Too little of it and you get into a different type of trouble. Most of the earth is covered in it. Job 12:15 talks about it, “If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.” Water.
I believe that water is one of the many ingenious things that God has invented. In fact, God began talking about water on day two and then pooled it up for us on day three [Genesis 1].
One of the most amazing properties of water is that the same molecular structure can be found in three different states, simply due to how fast the molecules are bumping into one another. We call these states solid, liquid and gas, or ice, water and steam.
Now, why have a physics lesson during a devotion? Because water is a beautiful illustration of the Holy Trinity. It represents God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Trinity is God, but in three persons. This is difficult for us to understand because we are one person. God is not like us though. We have enough trouble handling our one person. He is bigger. He has three: Three persons, one God.
It may not be as hard to understand as we think. As stated earlier, water has three states. In all three states, water has the same molecular structure. What differentiates them is how fast the atoms are moving.
The Trinity can be understood that way. God the Father is solid. He never changes. He is always firm. Jesus is like the liquid form of water. Everything needs to be primarily made up of Him, with just the right amount. The Holy Spirit is fast, like steam, always moving his way around the earth. The Holy Spirit has a hard time being bottled up. He always wants to burst into great events.
I hope this little illustration helps to show how creative our God is. Water is one of the most important things we need every day and it points us to God. Amazing!
The Bible
Genesis 1 | John 14 | 2 Corinthians 3
The Prayer
“God, I know you do not have it out for me. You want the best for me. I may go through trials and I may entertain failure but you walk alongside me. I will go where you go and I will stay where you tell me to stay. I thank you for Jesus and His work on the cross, I commit my life to Him again. Please help me to know all three persons of the Holy Trinity. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”
