If you are swimming in the ocean, there is something called rip current or undertow.  It is an invisible, to the eye, strong current that has the potential to pull you out to sea.

If you ever get caught in a rip current or undertow, the way to deal with it is to swim diagonally toward the shore.  You may end up down the coast a bit, but at least you have a chance of reaching the shore.  If you try to cut across directly, at a right angle, you can wear yourself out and perish.

Likewise, the same stream that has stepping stones which you can calmly and blithely trip across in calm weather can be treacherous in a storm.  You can slip and fall in stormy weather, and you might be better served to take the journey across  the stream in calmer weather.

So how do we deal with the storms and treacheries of life?

Every quarter has two sides.  Heads and tails.

There is positive and negative in electricity.

There are two sides to every topic.

And while human nature likes to focus on the positive side, the negative must be looked at as well for full victory.

• We want to grow a fruitful garden, but weeds must be pulled.
• We want clean clothes, but laundry must be washed.
• We want healthy food, but it must be grown properly, prepared correctly, and stored safely, so it is not dangerous.
• We like safety, but we must have police departments in our cities to deal with that which is not safe.
• We like personal safety, but we must learn the rules of personal safety.  And we must learn self-defense, naturally and spiritually.

One of the rules of personal safety is to learn how to pray in a way that permits God to help us.  The word “permits” is used because God requires that we ask.   God requires our free will asking.  If need only were the thing required for answered prayer, than there are plenty of needs throughout the world.  But a proper relationship to God is required.

Matthew 7:7  “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.

If you go into a store, and need something, there is a proper protocol.  You think about what you need, you go searching for it on the shelves,  you select it, you go to the checkout, you purchase it.  There is a protocol.

There is a protocol in the Kingdom of Heaven as well.  God’s kingdom is not run by “anything goes”.

There is a fatalistic thought in the secular world that “what will be will be”.  That does not exist in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Perhaps for the sinner, who does not know Christ, and who is at the mercy of the satanic forces, and secular, atheistic forces inspired by satan,  for that sinner who does not know how to deal with these forces in Christ, perhaps for that sinner there may be a certain degree of “what will be will be” simply because he has no access to the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus, and the promises of God to overcome the wickedness of this evil world.

However, for the believer, it should not be so.  If a believer is being tossed about and afflicted by the storms of this world, it may be because they are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.  The exception would be the martyr.

• A lack of knowledge of natural things can put a person in a position to experience some kind of destruction.
• A lack of knowledge of spiritual things can also put a person in a position to experience some kind of destruction.

What kind of spiritual knowledge is needed?

1. experiential knowledge of the blood of Jesus
2. experiential knowledge of the authority of the name of Jesus
3. experiential knowledge of how to access the promises of God in Christ Jesus

God watches over his word to perform it.

Jeremiah 1:12  Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

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Normally, I add an image to these posts as the final measure.  As I searched for an image today,  I felt a real terror, futurist, of the potential of someone reading this experiencing a drowning.   So instead of posting an image first, I am posting some water safety tips.  These are not all-inclusive, but cover a lot of scenarios.   Water safety can never be emphasized enough.

1.  Teach your children to swim
2.  Always use lifejackets when boating.  It doesn’t matter if you know how to swim or not.  Use them.
3. Children should always wear lifejackets on a dock.
4. Lifejackets need to be proper lifejackets, not just “arm pillows” or “tubes” that are sold.  These cheaper forms have the potential of leaving the child face down in the water, where the child could drown if not rescued in time.
5. Never rely on a lifejacket to do your own job of guarding your child’s safety in the water.
6. Tubes, likewise, have the potential of flipping and leaving the child face down in the water.
7. Be very wary of a pool full of floating devices.  An inexperienced swimmer can end up under the floating device and drown.  Too many can be a challenge for even an experienced swimmer.
8. Never rely on the weather as a determinant of whether to wear a lifejacket or not.  Weather can shift very quickly and a sunny day can turn into a stormy day.
9. Learn to swim yourself if you don’t know how.  It is not enough to send your children to swimming lessons.  It is not  enough for your child to know how to swim when you don’t know how to swim.
10. If you feel that you should not go into some water-related situation, generally a group situation such as kayaking, rafting, boating, or canoeing, don’t worry about being shamed by others for deciding to not go at the last minute.  The life you save may be your own.
11. It is not just oceans that are dangerous.  Any body of water can be dangerous.  Even a child left unattended in a bathtub can drown.  A child can drown inside of a tube inside a tub simply by flipping over and being unable to right himself or herself.  No child should have a cheap inner tube arrangement in the tub as a babysitter while the adult in the room is on an iphone, watching a movie, or doing anything other than paying attention to the safety of the child.  For that matter, bring the towel with you to the tub at the beginning of the bath so you don’t have to leave the child unattended while you run and get the towel that you forgot.
12. Learn all you can about water safety it all its forms.

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Added later than the original post:

Prevent Accidents