I wish you could hear the rain pounding on the windows right now. The way the wind shakes the walls of my home sends panic down my spine to my toes. "Should we go to the basement? Hid out till it's past?" Looking at the radar I know if we do, we could be there all night and for just some "strong" wind gusts and heavy rain I feel I might be over reacting.
As I turn back to my present task, I find it hard to concentrate as, what sounds like such a ferocious storm outside, continues to pound against the exterior walls of my home. it's in this moment, as I wrestle between logical fear and complete panic, that God nudges my heart that we are in much a similar battle today. Daily we are faced with the impulse to panic and run as what we see and hear vies so desperately for our attention, pulling us away from the security found only in Jesus.
So often throughout this past year everything in me has wanted to run down to the proverbial basement and hide out till this storm passes. Everything fear as ever taught me is to run and hide. It's taught me to grab my family, flashlight and food and hunker down until the eye of the storm has passed over.
But as I sit here listening to the winds beat against the house, I feel God speaking to my heart this pause, a waiting, a trusting beyond my capabilities. A pull to do something that goes beyond my natural response to fear and a push beyond to a faith that presses into the storm instead of running away from it. A call he has been speaking to my heart since the beginning of this year.
What if this unpredictable and petrifying season of life was not one where we, as believers, were meant to run to the cellar and hide out until the sun comes out again? What if this is the time where we step out onto the water, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Shutting out the sound of the waves and wind, the chaos that demands our attention and continually propels us towards panic? What if this is our time to meet Jesus on the sea and forever go down in history as a generation of believers who did not shrink back in terror, but rose up in the power of the Holy Spirit to lead those around us to the hope and courage we have housed within us?
We were never meant to be afraid! We are commanded not to fear! We are told to rely soley on our Savior. We are promised everything we need. But instead of curling up in the security of our Abba Father, listening to his gentle whisper that this too shall pass, we run and hide and take with us the light this broken world so desperately needs.
Now is our time to dig deep into Jesus! To rebuke the terror that we have allowed to hold us back for far too long. To lay aside the distractions, disappointments and shame we have allowed to hinder us and run head long into the tempest believing with every ounce of our being that Jesus is running right next to us!
We must be the example of a people who do not shrink at the first crack of thunder but stand strong and unmoved as we allow our roots to grow down deep into Jesus! Because if we hide until it's over, we will have missed the greatest opportunity for God to use us to bring the lost and dying to him. We will have said no to a deepening of our faith and a closer walk with Jesus as he shows us, not what we are made of, but who we are fully empowered by him.
It's quiet outside my window now. The rain just a light mist and the wind completely gone. How fast the squall passed. Had I run into the basement in a fright, I would have caused alarm far beyond what this particular storm deserved. How often I do this. I panic in the present and forget the goodness and faithfulness of the past. But when I turn my eyes to Jesus, anchoring myself to every truth that has sustained my entire life and the lives of every believer throughout the sands of time, my heart calms. I then have hope, peace, joy and a strength to stay and face the storm knowing that the one who I believe in is the only one capable of declaring "peace be still".
He is not a God who fails. He does not call us onto the waters unless he intends to catch us. And he is fully capable of speaking to the storm and dictating it however he wants. Because he IS still God! Creator of the world, creator of you and me! Every breathe, every heartbeat. Ever high and low. Everywhere we go, he is there. Aware. Loving. Protecting. Providing. Saving. Freeing. Being everything, he has ever promised to be. He is good! He is worthy! He is with us! He is still in control! Take courage, he has already overcome this storm!
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