"Hard to Swallow"

"So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts."
(Psalms 104:25)
Sure, we can make it all about the ocean, if that suits what you are looking for. Isn't that what feels best, to make it about something other than what might cause us to take notice of ourselves? Not today, today it's going to be weird and freaky; today it's about what we cannot control. Such is the case with the "great and wide sea," it is surely something that we have no control over, none whatsoever! We can utilize its resources and divert some of its water with dams and jetties, but when push comes to shove, it will always win in a battle. Today I would like to reference this sea with the likeness of our hearts; which just so happens to be as uncontrollable as the sea. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Most people do not really think that their heart is such; as if what God says about the heart applies to the people that are twisted and filled with wickedness, but not them, their heart is good and always filled with good intentions. Yes, it's all good, that is until a storm hits; and then it's like the ragging sea, something that is no longer under your control, at all! "Wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts!" Do you see the connection? "Who can know it?" We have no idea what we are capable of, not until the beast takes over, not until the storm is out of control. The darkness that resides within the human heart is a lot like the bottom of the ocean; a place of the unknown, where all sorts of things hide out, and have a life of their own. These are things that we must come to terms with and accept as if they are so. I know it might be hard to swallow, but if God says that it is so, then it is something that we need to take seriously. That said, I happen to know someone who controls the sea, His name is Jesus! If He can control the sea with just His word, imagine what He can do in us with His Spirit. But, it takes us realizing that we need Him to do it. Ask Him to guard your heart, to change your heart, to put a new heart within you; whatever it takes, just ask Him to make it happen. It's a lot like the trip across to the other side of the lake, cry out to Jesus, "Lord we perish!" and then let Him calm the raging sea. Get serious, because this is something you cannot control...
"The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?" "Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman said. "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'" "You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil." The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves." (Genesis 3:1-7) NLT