storm – Smallchelle

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor 12:10

Recently I have prayed and cried with various dear friends going through some radically difficult circumstances. They are being affected by other people’s sin in faith shaking kinds of ways. As we look at the account of Noah we’ll see just how grieved God was by all that sin in the hearts of people on the earth. Then we’ll get a picture of how God help us in times of trouble. Finally we’ll see that there is a way to suffer well so that Christ is glorified and we are strengthened.

Impending Doom

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. These are the generations of Noah.
   Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
   Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
   Genesis 6:5-14

My heart is breaking for my friends as they suffer in difficult circumstances… Can you imagine how grieved God’s heart is to see all the hurt among all the people all the time? In Noah’s day it was crazy bad! But God chose Noah and his family, to rescue them. He set them apart, called them to do His work and then hid them away while His wrath was poured out and the wickedness of mankind was judged. When we are hurting our tendency is to hide from God, but the secret to survival and strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other is to hide in God.

Help is on the Way

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell… if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly… and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 2 Peter 2:4-10 (paraphrased, emphasis mine)

Noah watched society boiling over with wickedness, for possible as many as 120 years, while he build the arc. Are you watching some part of your life fall apart right before your eyes? Are you in pain every day? Are you watching people that are supposed to love and care for each other implode with selfishness? What if it never changes? What if you die before that person ever repents and does the right thing? What if you are never healed this side of heaven?

It is such a comfort to know that God knows how to rescue us. Do you believe it? If not, why not? Maybe there is some misinformation about God you’ve been believing instead. If God has already gotten ahold of your spirit and rescued you from utter judgment don’t you think He will be with you in the storm you’re in now?

Get in the Ark

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Hebrews 11:7

My hope and prayer is that by faith my friends, knowing the flood is coming, will stand firm in their faith in the Gospel, climb in the ark of God’s arms of comfort and mercy and love, and for the sake of the glory of Christ be content with hardship, because when they are weak, then they are strong.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. Gen 7:11, Gen 17-18

We might feel like God doesn’t love us when the flood comes, but that is a lie of the enemy. You were chosen in Him before the foundations of the world, He will bear you up in an ark and rescue you. You will be in the flood, but as a beloved child of the Most High God, you have nothing to fear.

Psalm 32:6-7 offers great encouragement:

Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Jesus is the ark. And you are not alone there. Just like Noah had his family, hopefully you have a community of gospel friends that God has been building into your life… you didn’t know you would need them, but He did. If you don’t have a network of friends who will help you fight for your faith, do all you can to plug in at church, get in a small bible study or prayer group. Noah wasn’t alone, and neither are you. The fountains of the deep are bursting forth, the flood is coming… but so is rescue. Don’t hide from the Lord, instead hide in the Lord.

I hope this has been encouraging for you. If you are suffering and in need of prayer you can email me or be bold and share in the comments. If you have a friend suffering pass this along to encourage them. Tell them you love them and are praying for them. It’s part of what the Church is for. As always, thanks for reading.

Sometimes life is just business as usual. We get in the groove of family, work, church, weekend fun. We’ve seen the mighty works of God, but then we drift, ever so slightly, into self sufficiency. A kind of “what have you done for me lately?” attitude toward God. We feel like He’s busy somewhere else, taking care of other people, you know, widows, orphans, little kids with cancer, He must have left the 99 to go after another lost sheep, so I better get to work. I better work harder because this American Dream thing, well, it’s all on me. Nobody’s gonna just hand me a million dollars so I better pull up my bootstraps and get the job done. I’ve got mouths to feed and bills to pay, I’ve got it all under control… This is a very dangerous heart condition for the Christian.

And then crisis hits. Some big looming craziness that comes out of nowhere and threatens our lifestyle, peace and comfort. It brings a desperate kind of fear that sharpens our focus to a narrow pinpoint. The storm becomes all we can see. And we become desperate not to shipwreck.

Psalm 107:23-32

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

This psalm describes it so well, “their courage melted away… they reeled and staggered… and were at their wits end.” Have you ever been there friend? I definitely have… When I was 16 and found out I was pregnant, and later when my fiance and I split up and all I could see was a lifetime as a single mom. When my oldest son was hospitalized with asthma/pneumonia, watching him fight for every breath. All the times the bank account was empty and the bills were due. We become distressed even seeing the calamities of our country… 9/11, Columbine, Katrina, drug addiction and homelessness, and among our friends and families, deaths, affairs and diseases. Not to mentions the wars and crises of the world, AIDS, starvation, malaria, ISIS, human sex trafficking, Syrian refugees… Soul melting, heart shattering tragedies. Our world is so broken. We feel so helpless and out of control. The question then becomes who really is in control?

The description of the storm in this psalm amazes me. Where did it come from? Verse 25 tells us, “For He (God) commanded and raised the stormy wind…” There’s this tension all through scripture between the sovereignty of God and the choice of humans. He uses trials to build character in us, to teach us to trust him. We irrationally try to save ourselves, we believe we have control and are unwilling to let go. But we must let go. God doesn’t command us to stop the storm, but he does command us to pray and put our hope and trust in Him.

James 5:13-18 says,

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

In Matthew 8 and Mark 4 Christ commands storms just like God does in this psalm. It is a clear demonstration of Jesus’ infinite power and Godhead. Not only does he command demons and disease, but the very essence of all creation. Jesus was more than a prophet. He didn’t just pray and ask God to still the storm, like when Elijah prayed that it wouldn’t rain and then it didn’t rain. Jesus spoke directly to the storms. He didn’t just pray for God to raise Lazarus from the dead, he called him from the grave with the very words of his own mouth. He has all authority. He is in control.

So many people believe that another person will be their salvation so they worship them, devoting their lives and happiness to someone who will ultimately fail them, whether it be a spouse, friend, pastor, entertainer, sports person, job or even their own talents and abilities… We worship the least capable things. While God desires for us to be in relationships and Gospel community He never intended those things to be our “safety net.” Not only are they incapable of saving us, we must also understand that it is impossible for us to be anyone else’s savior.

Do you think when the ship in this psalm landed safely they credited their survival to their skills as sailors? Did they themselves hush the storm? Do you think they took any credit at all for the outcome? No way! They cried out to the LORD (aka “prayed”) and He delivered them! They saw the mercy, glory and power of God in the relenting of the storm. Did God need to save them for the sake of his glory? Nope. But I love how Matt Chandler puts it, “God is infinitely powerful and deeply personal.” He actually does save us for the sake of His glory. He wants us to proclaim His glory among the nations. His infinite power and steadfast love is what makes him a personal savior. When we witness his infinite power within our own personal lives we take no credit for our own salvation. We cry out to the LORD and He delivers us. Our only reasonable response is to fall on our faces in worship. This psalm encourages us to “be glad… thank the LORD… and praise him in the assembly.” No one else is worthy of our worship.

The one storm that never relented was the cup of God’s wrath toward sin, poured out to the last drop on Jesus at the cross. He took the crashing blows to rescue us from the ultimate shipwreck of hell and eternity apart from God, to bring us safely to the Father in heaven, then he rose from death to qualify us for adoption and prepare us for resurrection and eternal life.

Are you in a storm right now? Take heart! All storms have a beginning, middle and end. Even if you are suffering a relationship breakdown or chronic illness, and if God chooses not to fix it this side of heaven, know that his grace is sufficient for you and his power is made perfect in your weakness. And your last day here will be the end of your storm, then you’ll wake up in heaven, more alive than ever, having been brought by Jesus to your desired haven. In the meantime, continue to press into the Gospel and pray.

In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Paul encourages

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Where has your life and christian walk become business as usual? Where are you squeezing control of your life and circumstances in a death grip? Have you drifted into self sufficiency even though you’ve previously seen the mighty works of God? Let this Psalm be a gospel lense you look through to see yourself and your savior more clearly. The best time to prepare for a storm is not in the middle of it but before it hits. You’ve never been able to save yourself. Root yourself deeply in the Gospel, know with assurance that God delights to be with you in the storm and ultimately see you through to the safe haven. In fact, Jesus is the safe haven.

Posts Tagged with storm

Genesis 6 Part 1 – Impending Doom