Trusting God in the Storm

Pretty much everyone has been or is going through a storm of some sort.

Maybe its a storm in your job. A storm in your marriage. A storm with your kids. A storm with your parents. A storm with your health, or storm with your finances.

Storms that we don’t invite.

Storms that come from people who love us.

Storms that seemingly come out of nowhere, but there they are…

So, what do you do when everything you trusted in collapses in a storm? How do you prepare for a sudden change in your life? And how do you recover when life hits you on the blind side?

I know what that feels like, most of us do.

What do you do after all the hard work and dedication and commitment and loyalty – and it all comes crashing down?

The storm has many origins, but the answer is only one…

You can’t bring anything to God that’s too BIG for Him.

Anything…

You can’t bring anything to God that’s too hard, or too heavy, or too impossible.

He can handle it.

You can’t bring anything to God for which he does not have a perfect answer every single time. He will make your way clear.

He will give you a sense of confidence and boldness and assurance that you can stand anything that comes your way.

And sometimes God allows very difficult situations into our life to grow us. I think that if God allows a storm in your life, that its ultimate purpose is to bring you out stronger.

So, what is a storm?

A storm is a kind of trial, is an unexpected circumstance that invades your life – Where you don’t know if you’re going to make it or not.

That said, let me tell you something else about a storm – A storm is always designed to increase your faith and give you a deeper experience with God. Storms aren’t pleasant. They aren’t comfortable and sometimes they can even be life-threatening…

But they always come with a purpose.

A storm in your life can destroy you or it can develop you.

It can build your strength, your wisdom, your knowledge, your understanding, your commitment, your devotion, your faith, your peace, and your joy.

The thing about storms is when God gets through working them into our life, we’re so much better off. We’re cleaner. We are purer. There’s more peace. There’s more joy.

Why? Because you’re in the center of God’s will.

And if you can take your attention off the storm, you’ll see Him there with you. God doesn’t want a storm to destroy you and the truth is that only when we allow Satan to get a grip on us in those times of difficulty do we think that.

God created seasons, and we live in those seasons.

There’ll be seed time and harvest time, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and there’ll be day and night. And these will never cease. There will be some dark nights, but there will always be sunny days coming afterwards. There will be winter, and it’ll be cold. But I promise you there will be a summer coming.

I admit I’ve been envious of people in a season of plenty, I can’t help that I am human, especially over the time when I was in a season of brokenness.

But let me tell you something about seasons of brokenness,

I guarantee you cannot be broken forever.

Seasons are controlled by God, and hopefully that can bring you some peace. Because whether it is raining, or sunshine – God is in control.

Solomon writes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV)

He says to everything there is a season. Unto every purpose there is only a time under heaven. In other words, everything is seasonal. That means that no matter what you go through, it cannot last…

Seasons are important because seasons guarantee change.

Seasons give hope. Nothing remains the same in a season. Seasons are always temporary and the key to life is outlasting the season.

In other words, seasons are always moving, and never respond permanently to a temporary problem.

This is very important because when you are in a dark moment, sometimes you think that that’s a permanent situation.

But never make a permanent decision to try and solve a temporary problem.

Its what happens in divorce, in relationships, when you go through a very tough moment.

You’ve got a choice.

Am I going to make a permanent decision at this point? Or am I going to outlast this season and make it through this dark moment?

It happens with friendships. With jobs. With relationships. It happens in business. Sometimes you want to quit because life is so tough…

But everything is seasonal and that’s the encouragement of our life. God never wants your circumstances to destroy you. A storm is a reality, but He never wants your circumstance to trump His word. And he doesn’t want your circumstance to trump his presence.

Remember, He’s on the boat too.

You can see this in the Gospel of Matthew:

“The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” 

Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”

(Matthew 8: 25-26 NIV)

Jesus speaks to the problem, and when He speaks to the problem there is a change in the circumstances.

Trials, as inconvenient and as painful as they are, are a journey of discovery. I know this to be true. And no matter what you’re going through, there is a promise in the word of God that will match with the storm.

How many storms does His word cover?

All of them.

Storms are natural & storms are temporary.

There’s no permanent hurricane.
There’s no permanent earthquake.
There’s no permanent tsunami.
There’s no permanent cyclone.

They’re all temporary.

Storms confirm how strong you are. No matter how much faith you claim you’ve got – storms will test whether you’ve really got it or not.

Think of the Word of God as our anchor. Our anchor is immovable. It doesn’t move. It doesn’t change. It anchors us to the solid rock of Christ.

He’s with me wherever I am in the storm. And He has the power to bring me through the storm.

Jesus is the anchor.

Everybody will face storms.

You’re not going to be remembered in life for what you avoided. You are remembered for you what you survived.

How do we know David? Goliath.
How do we know Jacob? Wrestling with God.
How do we know Moses? 40 years in the desert.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (JOHN 16:33 NIV)

Again, you’re not known by the valleys and rivers you avoided, its the valleys and rivers you’ve crossed.

How would you like to go on the seas with a sailor who had never been on troubled waters?

“A calm sea never produced a good sailor.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

If you’re going to have a good life, it means you’re going to go through some stuff. But the purpose of that stuff isn’t to harm you – God either allows it or causes it – all for a purpose. And that purpose is to grow you.

At some point you’ve got to know the testing of your faith. The Apostle James says it best,

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

(James 1:2-4 NIV)

That right there.

And James says have pure joy when those storms come! Because you know that the storm is going to leave you a better person, a stronger person, and with more stable perseverance.
In other words, don’t run from the storm. Stay in the storm until perseverance completes its work.

A storm can wash you up on the shore or it can equip you to be a true servant of God, it’s all about how you respond.

And our response is determined by a number of things, one of which is our view of God & how we see Him.

Do you see Him as a vengeful God exacting punishment on his creations for their sins? or do you see Him as a God of love? And compassion. And kindness. And forgiveness. And purpose?

Big difference.

How do you see him? How do you picture God?

That is when you think about God and know that you are His and you’ve been saved.

Is He on your side or is He on the side of something else?

Do you see Him behind these storms with anger or punishment? Or do you see him as an awesome loving God sending into your life something that you don’t like, something even terrible but that He knows is best for you?

How do you see Him?

Paul writes to the church at Corinth,

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor 10:13 – ESV)

When the storm comes, He will not allow you to be tested beyond what you can bear. So, if He allows it – He trusts you.

To put it plainly, a storm is a message from God about what He thinks about you. And if you lost your home, God says you can handle a lost home.

Why?

Because He’s got another one coming that’s bigger than that.
A lost relationship? He’s got one coming that’s better than that.

A lost job? Same answer.

in other words, every storm that comes is God saying to you:

Go my child. You can handle this.

I wouldn’t allow it if you couldn’t handle it.

That means if that storm comes, you’ve already got what it takes to overcome it. So sometimes what appears to be storms in our life – may in fact be a storm. But the question is, what’s God doing in the storm?

Whatever your storm is, God is there. He is at work. He’s at work in the storm, and He is up to something good in every single storm –

Trust in Him.