Do you know what a cistern is? A cistern is an underground reservoir for storing water. Friends of ours in Hawaii have a cistern underneath their house. Rainwater is collected in their cistern and they use this stored rainwater to water their yard and gardens. Each of us has a spiritual cistern within our souls. It is the space within our souls where God dwells. This cistern is like an elastic bladder than can be stretched and expanded to contain more of God’s life within us. We enlarge our cisterns by choosing to trust God, especially when trusting is the most difficult, when life tempts us to doubt and fear.<\/p>\n
We can be transformed by life or not. If we choose to trust God, then we are changed to more closely match His holy blueprint for our lives. If we don’t trust, then the transformative effect doesn’t touch us and the things we have gone through are for naught. We miss out and stay the same as before.<\/p>\n
God is powerful enough to use anything in our lives to transform us, if we allow it. It is our trust in God that transforms us, not the event itself. At its most basic level, it is our struggle to remain in that state of trust that stretches and enlarges our souls, that increases our capacity for God’s life within us, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.<\/p>\n
Here is an excerpt from a speech I gave about trust: Do you know what a cistern is? A cistern is an underground reservoir for storing water. Friends of ours in Hawaii have a cistern underneath their house. Rainwater is collected in their cistern and they use this stored rainwater to water their yard and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[10],"tags":[17,16],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-2b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/creating-an-opening-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":0},"title":"Creating an Opening for God","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Among those who believe in the power of prayer, some seem to have better results than others. Why is that? No formula exists that can force God to do what we want. God is not manipulated. But we can take steps to make us more receptive to His generosity. Preparation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Openness to God"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/finding-peace-within-chaos\/","url_meta":{"origin":135,"position":1},"title":"Finding Peace Within Chaos","date":"October 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With everything going on in the world, people are responding with fear or anger. They don\u2019t realize that trust is a third option. Fear or anger doesn\u2019t bring peace to our lives. So what does trust look like? And will that bring us peace? Crisis or chaos threatens us. 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