IN TOW

IN TOW

The current heat wave has made spending time on the lake a priority.  Personally we love this weather and the water temps in the 80’s.  Recently our friends Bill and MJ came over for the evening.  We spent a couple of hours floating in the water solving the world’s problems.  Generally we float between our two swim rafts for safety reasons, so we are out of the boater’s path of destruction.  Curiosity overcame MJ and she asked why we have two swim rafts, which led into a story worth blogging about.

Several years ago a resident on Pine Lake had their swim raft for sale.  The swim raft was in excellent condition and the price was right.  Dan could not pass up the deal and wanted the second swim raft for out in front of our cottage to help keep boaters further away from our waterfront ~ granting us a larger area for swimming.  Now none of this is unusual, but how Dan decided to retrieve the swim raft is a worth telling about.

Pine Lake is 660 acres and there are four sections to the lake with a channel leading from one section into another.  Residents actually indentify where they live by saying they live on Lake 1, 2, 3, or 4.  We live on what you would call Lake #2.  The person he bought the swim raft from lives on Lake #3 which means to get to Lake #3 you must travel around the end of a long peninsula and backtrack from there. So this journey of Dan’s was approximately a two mile round trip!

Dan mentioned to me he was going to pick up the swim raft.  Sure, that was no problem with me because I realized he did not need my help. We have three motorized boats very capable of pulling the swim raft to our cottage.  Well you see Dan was gone a very long time and I could not figure out what was taking him so long to tow the raft back.  About ninety minutes after he left I hear the dog barking and looked out the window to discover he is towing the swim raft with our paddle boat!  I could hardly believe my eyes; he is pumping away like a crazy man with swim raft in tow…his response … only a “girlie man” would use a motorized boat to tow a swim raft half way around the lake.  Unbelievable!  Hum…………..I just thought of another “Dan” episode which involved his pick-up truck, trees and fence post (I feel another blog coming on!).

All of this got me to thinking; we do the very same thing in our spiritual walk with the Lord.  We tow around loads in our physical strength instead of drawing from the supernatural power of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord has given us access to all we need in Him to navigate our life and to do this without growing weary or faint.

Here are but a few scriptures to equip you for the load you may be hauling ~ go ahead tap into to the One who makes all things possible!!

Matthew 11:28-30(NKJV)
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 6:25-34(NKJV)
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 
and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 7:7-12(NKJV)
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 
Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Philippians 4:11-13(NKJV)
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.