I love going to church on Sundays. It really does restore my soul. Not just being able to worship our Savior, but being around the amazing people that attend that church gives me just the replenishment I need to get me through the week.
This past Sunday, a trio of ladies sang a special. It was a song and forgive me, I don’t know the name.… but the chorus was, “God sees the storm from the other side.” It was a beautiful song and it really put the visual in my mind of the disciples in the boat. The storm raging all around and how terrified they were. When all along, they had the Savior, the Creator and Ruler of all, inside that boat with them. Did they really think that He was not going to get them successfully to the other side? He was already there, ahead of that storm. How easy that is for us to forget when we are in the midst of our own storm.
Mark 4:39 ~’ And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.’
There are a few storm references in the Bible. I wanna talk about a couple of ways that God is ever present in the midst of our storms. Sometimes, as He did with the disciples, He not only is there with us in the midst of it, but He calms the storm. He is the ruler and creator of all things and with His power and love for us, He diverts the storm. He saves us from what may seem, to us, an impossible situation with no good outcome. He calms the tempest raging around us and brings us successfully through it giving us an outcome we never thought possible.
Psalm 107:29 ~ ‘He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.’
I can’t help but think of the most famous of these storms referenced in the Bible. I’m thinking of Noah and the great flood. The largest, arguably the most infamous of storms. God did not calm that storm for Noah. However, He was their shelter. By that I mean, He provided a way for them to survive. That particular storm was essential to God’s plan and was necessary in order to bring about His will. Because Noah was obedient and faithful, God provide provided a way for him and his family to get through it. God protected them. God was their shelter. We will undoubtedly go through and survive many storms in our lifetime. We need to trust Him and remain faithful and obedient, and He will be our shelter and our strength through all of them.
Isaiah 25:4~ ‘ For thou has been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.’
It’s important to remember, that God already knows the outcome of our storm. He orchestrates it, so it all works together for our good. Maybe not in the way we imagined, or hoped, but we can be assured that it is the best outcome for us because He loves us. Think about it for a second. As we stand there on the shore, looking across those choppy waters, doubting our ability to successfully navigate to the other side, God is standing right there beside us on that shore. He climbs in the boat with us and navigates us through those choppy waters. Sometimes, He calms the storm completely. Other times, He guides us through it as we traverse the choppy waters. In both cases, He is already standing there on the other side. He knows the outcome and we can have faith in the knowledge that He has orchestrated it to work for our good…whether or not it was the outcome WE thought best.
I think most of us are like the disciples in the boat. We see the storm raging all around us. We’re scared and terrified, thinking our situation is impossible when we forget the Savior is right there with us the whole time. When actually, we need to be more like Noah. We may not understand His plan, or the need for us to go through this particular storm. But we need to trust Him, remain faithful and obedient, and He will get us through it to the other side.
Psalm 46:1-3 ~ ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.’