Friends and I spent all day on that narrow strip of sand – building sand castles, swimming along the shore, and learning to surf. The rocky cove was desolate in the heat of the day, as sunbathing was taboo among the Taiwanese locals. Our small group of recent college graduates had set aside this day for fun and squeezed every ounce of pleasure out of the hours.
Finally, as the sun dipped on the horizon, a small family of Taiwanese joined us on the beach. Allowing them to experience the waves privately, we gathered our things to leave. After a few minutes, Andy noticed the family anxiously peering seaward. Thankfully, he had grown up in Taiwan and could query in Chinese.
We could tell something was wrong even before Andy’s translation. “The dad went swimming and is caught in the current. I’m going after him.” In the blink of an eye, Andy grabbed his surfboard and began a strong breaststroke out to sea.
“He’s a lifeguard,” assured one who knew him well.
As we watched, we could tell the distant swimmer was inexperienced. His fight pulled him away from the shore, not toward it. Even as we stared intently, his floundering figure seemed to grow smaller and smaller.
Andy cut diagonally through the waves rather than swimming directly to the drowning man. “He will miss him altogether at this rate,” I worried silently.
But, the lifeguard’s trajectory met the drowning man precisely. Andy quickly grasped the exhausted man’s wrist and stretched it across the rescue board. With a forceful yet skilled maneuver, Andy flipped the helpless man onto the top of the board.
Once Andy centered the victim, he climbed onto the back of the surfboard. Positioning his chest between the man’s legs, Andy clasped the sides of the board for stability and motored his legs like an outboard engine. Kicking against the waves, Andy paddled his lifesaving surfboard toward the beach, where all onlookers knew they had witnessed a miracle.
What if Andy had pushed the board to the drowning man but not helped him onto it? What if he had secured the exhausted man onto the board but left him to maneuver his own way to shore? Would the drowning man have returned to his family? Would he be alive today?
I don’t know, but to suggest these questions of a trained lifeguard is to mistrust his character.
Yet, this is precisely what we do of Christ. We assume His salvation rescues us from hell, but it is our responsibility to navigate home. Surely, He is somewhere in the sea with us, but we must prove how well we can swim. Since He took the trouble of giving us His float, we brace ourselves to finish the course with individual effort. We manufacture renewed willpower to help Him with our deliverance.
To suggest our assistance of a trained Savior is to misunderstand His character.
“He is able to save forever” (Hebrews 7:25). In the Passion Translation, Dr. Brian Simmons explains this idea: “He is able, now and always, to completely (fully) save,” or “He is able to save into the always.” Christ doesn’t just throw us a lifeline. He knows how to traverse the water. When we ask for His deliverance, He saves us, climbs onto the board with us, and actively (daily) navigates us to the final shore. He isn’t merely the lifeguard once. He guards our lives continually.
How can we be sure? “He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Why has Jesus established Himself as our full-time prayer partner? Why is He interceding for us continually without cessation? What is His reasoning?
Because He realizes at every moment, we are about to blunder. Our own faith is too wavering to navigate this life safely. Despite our desire for righteousness, we maintain a low-grade resistance to complete trust. “Surely I can make it to shore,” we think.
But He knows our feebleness. “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). Jesus is, even at this moment, “at the right Hand of God…interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). Because He knows our proclivity toward self-navigation, He is holding onto to our life raft. His prayers steer us with the compass of God (1 John 5:14-15; John 11:41).
“Jesus, thank You for praying for me. Repeatedly, continually, constantly – You intercede for me. You persist in prayer because I have no persistence. Even when I think I can manage alone, You see my weakness and steady my steps.
“Show me what particular thing You are praying for just now. I know it’s best for me. Remind me daily of Your intercession so my worrisome prayers disintegrate into praise. So be it.”