As the river was meant to flow unencumbered, God’s grace is intended to flow in our lives without barriers. When I think of a river, I think of a powerful force that will flow with strength over rocks an obstacles until it reaches its destination. As is moves over the rocks, the force of the water can actually smooth the rocks over time. One of my favorite activities is to go down to the river. I love to sit and witness the beauty and power of the river as it flows. However, the one thing that can hinder the river from moving as it should is built by the beaver, constructing huge dams to block the flow of water completely or slow it down to a mere trickle.
The barriers that often stop the flow of God’s grace in my life can be pride, ambition, disobedience, or rebellion. Of these, pride seems to trip me up more than any of the others. Pride can manifest itself in every sin. Pride has caused me to stumble in my life more times than I would care to admit. I begin by thinking that I can move along without God’s help. The “I” in pride stands tall. The danger of this sin is I begin to build little by little on the “dam” of pride and the bigger and bigger it gets. If I am not proactive in recognizing that sin has taken a foothold, it begins to stop the flow of the river of grace in my life completely. The trouble with pride in general is I justify it as “ok” and continue to build on it. Pride or any sin must be dealt with swiftly or it gets bigger. I know that when I realize what is happening I need to act quickly to remove the “beaver dams” that have been built. The only way to remove the “beaver dam” is to confess it to God and ask for forgiveness. Prayer of confession is the dynamite that blows up the “dams” of sin. If I want God’s river of grace to move freely and fill me to the full, these are the steps that are necessary.
May God help us to recognize right away when pride comes up so we can blow it up with the dynamite of confession through prayer before God’s river of grace is shut down from flowing freely in my life. Let the river flow, my friends. Let it flow!