The waters covering the surface of our planet find themselves locked in a constant gravitational struggle between the earth and it’s moon. As the moon revolves around the planet, the “pull” of its gravity attempts to steal earth’s precious water supply and make it its own. Of course the effort is in vain since the much stronger gravitational force of the earth holds the seas firmly within their terrestrial reservoirs, but some of the water is drawn towards the side of the planet facing the moon nonetheless. We refer to this daily shifting of the earth’s waters as “the tides”.
Even though the moon is relentless in its gravitational struggle with the earth, it can never win. As long as our Lord allows the earth to stand, the tides will ebb and flow but her waters will remain her own.
The tides of the seas are much like the tides of a Christian’s life. Satan is constantly trying to “pull” us away from God, but once we’re saved his devious struggle for our souls is forever lost…once a person is saved, he/she remains saved. Of course satan knows he cannot steal a saved person’s soul away from God, but he continues the struggle nonetheless. Why? Because he knows that even though he cannot ”unsave” a person, he can sometimes cause his/her testimony and ability to lead others to Christ to be lost.
It is satan’s desire to prevent as many people as he can from getting saved and spending eternity in heaven, and one of his most effective methods of achieving that goal is stealing the testimonies of those who are already saved. God expects us to stay within His will and fight the temptations of the devil as best we can by using His Word as our sword, but he knows we’ll falter from time to time because we’re nothing more than human beings – sinners saved by His grace. But our God is a merciful God who readily grants second chances (and third chances, and fourth chances….), and He readily accepts our humble pleas for forgiveness, allowing us to step right back into His will.
This constant ebb and flow of the tides of a Christian’s life is a reality that we’ll only be able to escape when we finally make it “home” to be with the Lord. But the good news is that the “gravity” of our Lord’s mercy and salvation is infinitely stronger than that of satan’s devious desires, and the shining light of Jesus’ precious gift of eternal life will win out over the darkness of satan’s evil every time.