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Ezekiel 47:3, And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured 1000 cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.

Ezekiel is led to the edge of the water where the man measures this portion of the water to be about 1000 feet wide.  A point of interest here is the water continues to get wider and that there are no tributaries feeding into the water.  The water being added to the river is directly from God.  When Ezekiel gets into this portion of the water, the water is ankle deep.

All of us are led to the water, many never take the first step of getting into it.  Reasons for not doing so might be the busyness of life, wrong expectations from you if you do, and you will do it another time when _______ is accomplished.  This first step into the water is accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.  It is a step of faith because it is contrary to what the world teaches; it is placing your faith in God who has never been seen, in a heaven who has not been seen either.  Hebrew 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”   Eternal life begins here on earth with our decision to make Jesus Christ our Savior.  Once again this is done by a belief that God will take us into his family without works; it is done by a heart full of belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

By taking this step into the water you find yourself ankle deep.  What does that mean?  This is the time you might be called a baby Christian because you begin to feed on the very basic teachings of the Bible.  It is a time you begin to learn about trust, obedience, surrender.  You are happy to be ankle deep in the water but the cares of life still consume too much of you.  You have a Bible but it is not read every day.  You are praying before meals and before bed; it has more meaning than before. 

Part of my responsibilities as a private school principal was to take seniors on their senior trip to the coast.  While there I would walk along the shore in ankle deep water.  I really enjoyed doing that.  I was content with being there; I could see others well out in the water, but I would not venture further out.

Too many Christians are content to stay in ankle deep water.  However, it is only the first step in one’s walk of faith.  There is so much more.  I believe that God wants every baby Christian to grow up and become mature in Him.  If you are only ankle deep in your faith, what is keeping you there?

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