"But our God has provision for us!"

A thought by John Eldridge in his book, Resilient (p. 13). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

And that is so true but let's go back to set this thought up.

Earlier John said, "When the human heart and soul experience month after month of disappointment and loss, death rolls in. Dr. Richard Gunderman described the progressive onset of disillusionment as the accumulation of hundreds or thousands of tiny disappointments, each one hardly noticeable on its own. The loss of hope and dreams suffocates the Primal Drive for Life.

He says, "But our God has provision for us!

"I know, I know—most of you think that what you need right now is three months at the coast. Walking on the beach, drinks on the deck, and with all my heart I hope you find that. But for most of us, a sabbatical in some gorgeous refuge is not available. What is available is the River of Life, God himself, in ways we have not yet tapped into."

He continues, "God wants to make his life available to you. Remember—he’s the creator of those beautiful places you wish you could go to for a sabbatical. All that beauty and resilience, all that life comes from God, and he wants to impart a greater measure of himself to you! The life of God is described in Scripture as a river—a powerful, gorgeous, unceasing, ever-renewing, ever-flowing river."

He says, "Ezekiel was given a number of beautiful visions, glimpses into the kingdom of God that permeates this world. He saw the temple of God in Jerusalem, and out of the temple was flowing the River of Life. As it flowed forth across the countryside, it became so deep and wide it wasn’t possible to swim across it—an image of abundance! I love how the passage ends: 'Where the river flows everything will live' (Ezekiel 47:9).

"Everything will live. This is what we want—to live, to find life in its fullness again."

He later says, "There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a mighty river. Isn’t that marvelous? Follow me now—the River of Life is not just for later. Jesus stated clearly that the river is meant to flow out of our inner being right here, in this life: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them' (John 7:37–38).

"The mighty life of God flowing in you and through you, saturating you like a river.

"Now let me pull all this together. We have a capacity and drive in us for living. It’s a precious longing, and it’s taken a beating. God is 'the fountain of life' (Psalm 36:9). There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a river no one can even swim across—a superabundant outflow of life! This life is meant to flow in us, and through us.

"In order to tap into the River of Life, we begin by loving God in our longing for life to be good again. That’s where things are decided. Nearly all of us have been chasing relief in a myriad of hopes, plans, and dreams without first turning to God. So we need to enter the longing, feel it, become present to it, and in that place start loving God. Choose him."

He then says, "Our first step toward resilience is to return our Primal Drive for Life and our longing for things to be good again to God; we come back to Jesus from all other places we’ve been chasing life. We allow him to be our rescuer here, in the longing for life to be good again. We ask God to fill us with the river of his life."

God has a provision for us. Let's just come back to Jesus from all the places we've been chasing life. Yes, yes! #continuethought