Revival: Going through a Storm

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Alot of things have been going on in life lately.  I haven’t been directly experiencing anything too crazy… except for normal life, which in a sense, always has its fair share of chaos. But I have been witnessing many storms happening to people very close to me. And because of the way I am wired up, I feel very deeply for the circumstance, the pain, the fear, the doubt, whatever emotion is joining that experience.  I want to help, I want to be there for the people, I want to lend a helping hand.  But in these certain situations, the distance is a little too far to stop by and drop in to help.  So it leaves me feeling a little helpless. Which in reality, it is not my fault if I cannot be there to chip in. It is a blessing to love to serve and love to help out, but I can’t take that to a whole other level of obligation.  If I believe God’s power is as mighty and powerful as God’s word and the truth I believe says it is, I have to believe in that power in situations where I feel helpless also.  Ultimately I have nothing to give in and of my own power.  My own strength, my own love for people, and my own servants heart belongs to the Lord.  So out of a position of gratitude, honor, and praise to the Lord I can sometimes be of help to people.  But I forget sometimes the best thing I can do is pray. Pray for them, pray with them, pray about them… Prayer is powerful.

How do I find peace in this chaos?

So if God is the perfect peace in the storms of the Bible, he can also be the perfect peace in my life and the lives of those around me.  He didn’t just wake up on the boat and calm the storm the one time.  He shows up day after day and calms the storm in situations we are going through today in the present. But that calmness doesn’t always look the same.  It may not be the rain or the winds stopping.  It may just be a change of heart, mind, and surrender.  Peace is not in the circumstance, it is in the heart. I read in a bible study the other day, “Christ doesn’t change the circumstance to make it bearable, he masters them at the peak of their impossibility” So no matter the circumstance, trust in the Lord.  Have faith that can move mountains.  Trust that God is in the storm with you along with the smooth waters.  And step out of the boat.  Walk in faith. We may never experience the abundance and power of peace by sitting in our comfortable lives that become mundane and routine. Maybe it’s time to take a risk or think out of the box.  Think about your storms.  Think about how you can find a quiet moment to reflect. Be content in whatever storm you are in, but find the peace to reassure the hope that is there for you to grasp. And be ready for the joy of the sun at the end of the storm. Then look back and see the footprints that were walking with you the whole way.  There is a perfect peace within a storm.

One of the best books I have ever read that has led me to recklessly abandon is Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning. Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God. Brennan Manning writes, “Henri Nouwen wrote of the spiritual work of gratitude: To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections—that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.” So no matter the storm we face, we serve a loving God.  In whom we can put our faith, our trust, and our everything.  Are you ready to face the storm and trust in the glimpse of light coming through the clouds?

Storms give us an appreciation for a sunny day.  Storms remind us that we are not in control.  Storms of life bring us to our knees before our Savior.  Storms of life remind us that we serve a big God that will be with us to get through the storm.  No matter what chaos comes your way, trust in God, know He is with you, and hang on through the storm. You will come out of it stronger.  You may come out of it more broken.  But in your weakness the Lord is your strength. Therefore, your strength rests in something immeasurably stronger than you could ever imagine.

Where have you been experiencing a storm?  How can you find peace within those moments?