Storms of Life

God desires to show His power through your storm, but is your lack of faith keeping Him from doing so? God brings storms into your life to show His strength and to gain glory from His providence.  Paul Chappell

I live in Dallas and those who also live here know that we have had some major rain in our area for the month of May.  We have had major flooding and the lakes that were empty last month are overflowing today and some are 26 feet over flood stage. 

We have a dog and he hates storms.  He can feel the storms coming and he starts pacing and panting.  So last week at 1:30 am a storm blew in.  I am no weather woman so I am not sure why the storm stopped over Dallas.  It was like it had just enough gas to get here and then it just ran out.  It rained, thundered and lightning lit up the sky for 3 hours.  As you can imagine my dog freaked out.  He panted and paced for three hours.  Some of this was on our bed.  So our bed vibrated for those 3 hours.  My dog finally got on the floor and climbed over the frame of our bed and hid behind it.  He couldn’t turn around so he got stuck so we had to get up and help him out. 

I didn’t sleep from 1:30am to 4:00am when I had to get up and get dressed for work.  I had my usual 1 cup of coffee.  When I was halfway to work I realized the caffeine in that one cup wasn’t enough.  There is a Starbucks on my way to work so I stopped to get another cup of coffee.  I pulled up and there was three inches of water standing in the parking lot.  I sat there debating about whether it was worth getting my shoes and feet wet.  I decided this was a coffee emergency so I stepped out of my car into water that covered my ankles.  I squished into the Starbucks and ordered a tall latte.  When I got my coffee I walked over to the counter to pour sugar in the cup and the lid of the sugar canister fell into my coffee and dumped a mound of sugar in my cup.  Coffee sloshed out and all over the counter.  I stood there looking at the mess and thought “why did I get up today”. 

I went back to the counter and told the clerk that the sugar canister lid had been unscrewed and fallen into my cup and sloshed coffee all over the counter.  She asked if I needed another latte.  That was kind of a silly question, but then I thought, "she doesn’t know what my day has been like so far so how would she know that I needed an intravenous injection of caffeine to get through this day".  I sat in a chair to await my second latte.  A guy walked up to the counter to get napkins and saw my tall latte sitting there with the sugar lid sticking out of the top.  He said, “I guess I don’t want sugar this morning”.  Why is everyone a comedian when you are in the middle of the storms of life? 

Have you figured out that in the midst of the storms in your life, that God wants you to turn to Him?  There is no better place to go when you are being tossed around by life.  We are guaranteed storms.  It is not a matter of if they will come.  It is really a matter of how many and how often they will come.  When you think your storm is too big to handle, turn to the One who is the Master of calming storms. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, as I watched the storms this past month in our area; I was reminded of Jesus calming the storm that tossed the boat that the disciples were in.  As Jesus slept they were worried about whether they would survive.  You have the power to see us through any storm of life; but we must first turn to You and believe that You are capable of calming the storm.  Thank You for calming my storms and thank You for helping me through them.      

      

Scripture: Wind and Wave Obey Jesus

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  Matthew 8:23-27