16 The Storm

Last night we had a storm that kicked off our hydro for 15 hours. I was looking out of my living room windows to my forest, 30 feet away, and couldn’t see the trees. The wall of rain was impenetrable. The storm continued through the night. It was loud (it seemed to keep thundering just outside our window), long (ALL night, those storms came three times throughout the night) and bright (the lightening was continuous). It was a storm like I had never seen before. I checked on the cat with the kittens and everyone was fine and hunkered down for the night. I checked on the children (yes, even the big ones) to make sure they were safe and that they felt safe (they were sleeping through it all!).

But then I worried.

I knew the house wasn’t going to fall in or get hit by lighting. I knew that if the children (even the big one) were to wake up, they would come to me and I would tell them about Jesus’ power and love and that we could think of things with a sound mind and the science behind what was happening. (2 Timothy 1:7). But I still worried.

I worried about the “What If”. WHAT IF, someone wakes up? WHAT IF, they are afraid? And that was kind of the extent of it… but it took up a lot of the night, because it looped around. And yes, someone woke up, but the effort was minimal to get them back on track and sleeping.

All those wasted hours that I could have been sleeping… resting… rejuvinating in Jesus.

But didn’t.

But I’m in good company, I’m not alone in my worry-world. If the disciples were there and Jesus saw hope in them, then…

The Back Story (Matthew 8:23–27, Mark 4:35–41, and Luke 8:22–25)

Jesus and his followers were headed across the Sea of Galilee after a very long day of teaching and serving people. Jesus was humanly exhausted. As soon as he got into the boat, he fell asleep. It says there were several boats with him (Mark 4:36). Very likely, there were his experienced professional fisherman with him, as he had 4 of them on his team (Andrew, Peter, James and John, who grew up on the sea and knew it well).

It started great, but then a huge storm came up suddenly on the lake. (To see what it may have looked like, check this out Storm on Galilee) After watching that footage of the waves, I’m not sure I’d want to have been on a first century fishing boat in that storm! But it was bigger than this – the enemy of God wanted to shut down the ministry of Jesus. This may have been a plot to kill him and his followers, so that God’s movement of freedom for all humans would be destroyed forever. If I drown them, there won’t be a message to send.

Water poured in, and they were about to capsize.

Jesus was STILL sleeping. The trust He had in His Heavenly Father was that deep.

The panicked-professional-fishermen woke the carpenter-Jesus, yelling “we’re going to drown!” Standing to His feet, in authority He said, “Silence!” and “Quiet down!”

It happened! The lake became smooth as glass.

He said to his disciples, ““Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were in absolute awe, staggered and stammering, “Who is this, anyway? He calls out to the winds and sea, and they do what he tells them!”

Thoughts

I had to endure a birthday of my child without seeing them yesterday. That was hard. The storm came and was looking very big. It was looking like it was going to crash my boat to pieces.

I had to endure an angry email full of blame towards me in a situation that I had nothing to do with, yet will not be believed. My boat took another hit.

It looks like my boat was going to sink…

But God…

He brought me to:

Perspective.

GOD ! IS ! SOVEREIGN!!!

HIS WORD IS TRUTH.

HE IS THE ONE THAT EXACTS JUSTICE. IN HIS TIME.

IT WILL BE DONE EFFECTIVELY, RIGHTEOUSLY AND SURELY. HE WILL NOT LET SIN GO UNPUNISHED. (If people choose the Cross of Jesus, that punishment has been completed. If they don’t, they have to pay for it themselves, and that will take an eternity. Either way, it will be paid for by someone.)

It is not my responsibility to do any of those things. I just have to look to the Cross and what Jesus did.

I know that I know that I know that the enemy was trying to get me distracted with what God spoke into my heart this morning. Early morning, God spoke peace to me.

But as my day continued, even only by a few hours, the enemy was at work trying to steal the gift given to me. For a moment, I gave it up to the enemy.

Here is where it gets tricky. There is a point where grief is natural and healthy and a moment when it becomes wrong because it turns into something else. There also is a point where asking God for justice is righteous but then it morphs into something else. What is that line? How does something healthy and righteous turn weird? Why does it turn? Am I responsible for that shift? Do you know the difference?

When I come into agreement with the spirit against God’s heart and will, it becomes my responsibility. I have then submitted/agreed with/accepted/yielded my will to the enemy’s suggestion and will for my life at that moment, even a small moment. That will steal my blessing.

I know that I have to be intentional about how I think, taking every thought captive and bringing it before my Lord Jesus, for evaluation by Him. He has my best interests in mind. He is kind. He is good. His words last forever.

I can count on that!

Did you know that you can count on that too? What are you struggling with? What waves are threatening to smash YOUR boat up? Take a moment to honor what is true about your feelings and situation but then evaluate it in Jesus, so you can know the TRUTH about your situation. God’s TRUTH. Ultimate TRUTH.

Truth you can count on.

My darling, the storm that kept me up the other day was pretty severe. I know the storms you are facing are pounding at your heart like the rain pounded the house. A few trees got branches taken off (a.k.a. pruned) but the next day, the forest was more alive and green than I’ve seen it in a long time. That storm and the rain made things beautiful, but the process was hard. Heart- pruning is painful. It wasn’t the tree’s fault that there was a storm. The tree didn’t deserve it and they didn’t need it to be done (they were already healthy trees). But they are trees, and living in a forest and storms sometimes come. We are humans, living in a painfully fallen world and bad stuff sometimes happens. God is NOT limited to “oops, there was a storm, I hope things will look pretty later”, as if He had NO IDEA the storm was coming. Nor is God a God that causes disaster because He is mean spirited. No, neither. God is God. I don’t understand why the storms happen, but they do and we can’t get out of EVERY storm (statistically speaking). SO, if we WILL have storms, because storms come, then let’s do the storms right.

I was very thankful when the power came back on! The power. Hmmm… God’s power. Oddly enough, even though the hydro was off, the Power was always on. I just had to access it.

Now I know that deeper than before.

Perhaps you will too…