Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Storms of life

For the last few days I have seen the power go off and on in my home, watched my yard become a swamp and saw some beautiful and powerful light shows. The storms have been pretty intense. On one hand, they are an annoyance; I can’t get any work done outside (or is that a blessing in disguise), power constantly flicking on and off, and everything just being wet. On the other hand they are beautiful, the smell of a fresh rain, the light show, and what it is doing for our garden are all amazing.

Storms come into our lives. They simply do and will always be there. God never promised that we would not face the storms but he did promise that we would get through them. Jesus sent his disciples into the middle of a horrendous storm (Matthew 14: 22 – 33). As people living in a fallen world among fallen people we need to realize that there will be storms. Faith is all about recognizing that even when the storms come God knows about them and in fact may have sent us directly toward them. He knows what we need. He knows our hearts cry to have a stronger relationship with Him so at times he allows the storms of life to come to cause us to grow.

God is our protector, our shield, our high tower, our very-present-help in time of trouble. He will deliver us from the storm as He did with the disciples when He calmed the storm. Their faith was increased as they saw the storm calmed. They began to believe that the Lord could do anything. Most of the disciples were fisherman or lived around the sea and knew the dangers of these storms. God wanted to show them that He was more powerful than the fears that were so familiar to them.

We will face all kinds of things. We can’t allow anything to be more powerful in our eyes that God. He is the one that is in charge and there are times that we will battle our greatest fears. God may allow them to raise their ugly heads so that He can show us He is far more powerful than any fear we may face.

When we allow the Lord to be I control, it is very easy to see the storm go from and ugly annoyance to something beautiful. When the storm comes into your life, know that God knows. Understand that while He may or may not have caused it either way He has allowed it. If we don’t panic but instead choose to trust, He will overcome our storm and show us we no longer need to fear. We can always expect great things when we trust the Lord!

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