Article: Trusting God In The Storms Of Life | Jacob Varghese

Have you ever felt like shouting, “God, where are you when I needed you the most?” Sometimes God seems too far away and show up when it is too late! Isn’t it? Many times I felt as if “I cannot go any further”. But it does not mean God’s goodness is not at work. Are you feeling that a miracle is your only hope of seeing God’s goodness at work? Hold on! God is at work. When we turn our Bible to Mark chapter 4 verses 35 to 41, we see a violent storm threatened the life of Jesus’ disciples and to sink their boat in the Sea of Galilee. In Mark chapter 4 verse 39 we can read, Jesus arose and rebuked the wind and said to the waves “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
We are all sailing through the sea of life. Some of us may be in a great storm right now. Listen carefully, God did not promise us a smooth sailing but He did promise that we are going to reach the other side. Some of you have lost your job; some of you are going through some crisis in life, some of you are experiencing failures, some of you are going through a time of illness or some of you have experienced unexpected tragedy that’s stricken life like a lightning striking out of a clear blue sky. But what can we learn from this chaos? What can we do to survive the coming storm? What to do when you feel like going under and the chaos reigns? When fear grabs you by the throat and tries to drown you, what to do? Chaos and storm doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. It doesn’t mean that God is angry with you or God doesn’t love you or that God has rejected you. No, Chaos doesn’t mean that if you were in the perfect will of God, you would not be in that storm. Let me tell you this very clearly, turmoil is a normal part of our life and living. Struggle is the essence of growth and development.

I heard of a person who years ago spent most of his time planting trees. But he seldom watered the young trees because he thought that too much watering would spoil the trees. And later he found the trees have grown, tall and tough. An oak tree begins with a little seed that planted in the soil and fights its way up only to face the winds, the rain, the snow, the blazing sun and endless adversity year after year to become a beautiful, magnificent oak tree. Adversity and deprivation seem to have benefitted them in ways that could not if it was being sheltered and pampered. It is only in the storms that our faith can grow. It is only when our faith is tested by fire that we really know how pure our faith is. It is only when we are tested that our character can develop; only in the storm we can discover the power of God to deliver us. Only in the storm we call up on the Lord and find Him to be the ever present help in the time of our trouble. The storm develops our confidence and our confidence is our capacity. So God has you fighting the present storm you are fighting now because it is a fight designed by God to develop your confidence. And when you win this one, the next one will be a little bigger and you will have the confidence because of your past victory.

God does not answer instantly does not mean He is not going to answer at all. God’s delays are not God’s denial. He is waiting for persistence to overcome resistance. He is trying to develop in us the character of endurance. Those who endure to the end shall be saved. God puts you through a struggle to develop you into who you are going to be in the kingdom of God. God used no one in the Bible until he put them through the University of Adversity. You will have your share of adversity and you will reach the other side but God is going to make you a champion of grace as you go through the adversities of life. When you focus on the storm, you will experience fear but when you focus on Jesus, you will experience faith. When you struggle, when you go through adversity, think about the possibility that God is using through your struggle and adversity. Every opportunity has difficulty and every difficulty has opportunity. It is only when you come to grips with a difficulty that you will realize your potential. Stop looking at your circumstances and start looking at your opportunity. The things and people you trust in today will fail you tomorrow. It is painful, it is chaotic and we will end up with the question why God is allowing something like that to happen? Listen, it is not the end of the world. As the time goes, your heart will heal, the sun will shine again, you will sing again, you will love again. You may think there is no answer for me oh God. But God has a thousand and one answers you have not thought of. Where do you go when the storms of life are greater than what you can endure? When the storms are great, when the wind and waves are crashing your dreams, where do you go? You need to go to the one who winds and waves obey-His name is Jesus. He is the rock and He is the savior.

The measure of our spirituality is the way we respond when things go wrong. If we give into despair, doubt God’s existence, or strike out at some innocent person, we have some growing up to do. How did you respond the last time something went wrong? Did you fall apart? If so, you need to ask God for patience and a positive perspective to handle life’s setbacks in a mature way. When things go wrong, ask God for strength and wisdom. All of us have struggles. Life is hard for everybody, but the only difference is, it is much harder for some than for others. Putting our trust in Christ our savior and His word assures us that all the storms will turn to joy when we totally depend on God. When life seems impossible, we can trust God. Philippians 4: 6&7 say “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” When Jesus calms our storms like problems and situations, we realize that we have much more to learn about His compassion for us, and we long to trust Him with all our cares. Sufferings can become so intense at times that we do not know how we can take any more pain. It is in these moments that Jesus reassures us of His presence and sustains us. God provides the protection of His own wings. So do not focus on your problems, focus on Jesus. Do not try to face the future alone. Make the Lord your refuge. Take comfort in the protection of God’s angels. As we see in In Mark chapter 4 verse 39, Jesus speaks to the problem and when he speaks to the problem, there is change in the circumstances of our life. And no matter what you are going through, when the storm comes He says He will not allow you to be tested beyond what you can bear. 1 Corinthians 10 verse13 says “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” So be sure if He allows it, He trusts you. A storm is a message from God about what He thinks about you? Every storm that comes, God is saying to you come on you can handle it. I will not allow it if you could not handle it. Whatever the storm is, God is at work. He is at work in the storm. He is up to something good in every single storm if we will just trust Him.

JACOB VARGHESE

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