The Water Tower

In the busyness of starting homeschool, adjusting to my husband's new work and travel schedule, and gearing up for fall sports and activities, God has been teaching me Proverbs 18:10 this past week...

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved"

I would love to provide you with a bit more context for this verse in my life when I have the chance (haha!), but I love how God will give you a verse to hold on to...to encourage and strengthen you...and then He will continue to flesh it out for you in the days/weeks/months to follow.

That is exactly what has happened this week.

This verse is a familiar one to me, but I have ALWAYS associated it with castles.  Ramparts.  Fortresses. Battles. Knights.

But when I was on a bike ride with my family this past Sunday, we passed by a huge water tower (pictured above) and the Lord showed me that THIS is what He is for me right now.  A WATER TOWER.  You see, when I am overwhelmed, discouraged, lonely, afraid, stressed, depressed, {fill-in-the-blank}...my first instinct is to run to my idols--all those things that I think will relax, comfort, and make me feel happy--but these things always fail me and can NEVER be a substitute for Him!

Like the Israelites whom Jeremiah warned and chastened, I am so apt to carve out for myself "broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

“My people have committed two sins:They have forsaken me,    the spring of living water,and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water."    Jeremiah 2:13

But God wants me to run to Him FIRST and Him EXCLUSIVELY!  While God's name DOES protect us from the storm and the battle...it does SO much more!  It satisfies us with a FUNDAMENTAL NEED each one of us has--the LIVING water for our souls!  And how it cleanses and refreshes!  Oh...how I want to run to that WATER tower in the heat of these August summer days...and not to those muddy waters I have sought to dig out for myself!