Professed-Belief and Heart-Belief

All your waves and breakers 

    have swept over me.

Why are you downcast, 

    O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, 

    for I will yet praise Him,

    my Savior and my God.

                                     ~ Psalm 42:7,11

What are we who profess our 

    faith in Christ 

  to do when the waves of life 

    wash over us?

Will our faith prove to be genuine?

Or will we spurn Christ and 

    rush toward 

      the false harbors of this world?

At such a moment of trial,

    we are forced into one of 

        two positions:

either cynicism and coldness of heart

    or true depth with God.

When that moment comes,

    sent by the hand of a tender Father,

will we believe what we have confessed 

    about God to be true,

or will we suspect Him 

    of deserting us?

The two lines of professed-belief 

    and heart-belief,

      to this point parallel,

are suddenly forced either to 

    overlap completely 

        or to move further apart.

We cannot go on as before.

And why does this happen?

Because God will not let us remain 

    the people we would be

as long as the waves reached 

    only our waist. 

                                  ~ Devotional