The Storm

Having faith is easier when you can see the storm clouds approaching.
Might I add, it is easier to have faith while watching a storm versus being in a storm!
Who dares venture out into the deep when there are telling signs they will need to fight for their life at some point?

It would make sense to stay in the shallows, better yet, on the shore until the storm passes and venture out when it is safe to do so!

Unfortunately, for us as humans, with all our planning and careful, calculated steps to ensure smooth sailing in our lives, we are caught off guard. We do not know what the future holds, and we come upon a violent storm at some point in life.

A storm that creeps up on us without warning. A storm that affects everything that defines our faith. These storms propel us into a realm of uncertainties.

• How do you respond when flung into a realm of uncertainties?

• Is it easy to trust God when the world you know and find so much comfort and security in crumbles?

Because of our limited insights as humans, when we find ourselves in the clutches of a violent storm, we are most times unprepared. We are not given time to take cover or to remove ourselves from the situations that will literally floor us.

We feel that everything we believe in is shattered while we watch the world we know around us fall (In the natural, that is!) apart and believing God’s promises based on what we are seeing is a choice we will need to make.

• Is it easy to trust God when nothing makes sense?

• What do we do when His promises and our reality completely contradict each other?

• What do you do when you are caught off guard?

• When is it easier for you to exercise faith?

• When do you struggle with having faith?

The last few months of my life have been the roughest season I have ever had to endure on this journey called life.
Yes, and let me say, I have experienced some trying times!
Also, the storm is still raging!

I always encourage and cheer others on, telling them not to give up because better days are ahead. But there are just some seasons in life, I am now learning, that will take all the words out of your mouth and drown out all the cheerleaders around you because the pain you feel is so excruciating.

The people that are in your corner mean you well, but they cannot begin to understand your pain because they have never endured anything like what is in the cup before you! 

They have never travelled on any path like the one you are on.

The path you are on is designed for you to walk it out with God and God alone.

No one can truly encourage you because the situation you are in is one that no one could have ever imagined! The only person that can lead you on, the only person you can hear as the waves crash on everything that you are and know, is God himself. 

The hurt you are feeling is bone-deep, marrow-deep. The waves towering above you are midnight blue and are literally touching the sky. The uncertainties are not just confined to one area of your life, but your entire world feels as though it is engulfed.

• How do you, in such a season, begin to encourage yourself?

• How do you remind yourself of the promises of God when your reality is nowhere close to what He is saying to you in His words?

• How do you endure being battered and beaten and God is silent?

As the storm rages on, life is not slowing down for you to stand up after you have been tossed aside, again and again, being flung away further from the shore. You ask yourself the question, “Will I make it back to shore?”

These seasons bring you face to face with God himself! The terrain is so rugged; He is the only one that can lead you. Your eyes are open, but it is so dark; He must hold your hands! Yes, you will need to trust Him in His word, knowing that the word reflects His heart towards you!

You are capable of walking; you know how to, but it is so dark. Placing your feet is no easy task, and He will need to place your feet on the edge of the cliffs like that of a mountain goat.

There is nothing that can prepare you for being thrown into the middle of the ocean with your world spinning violently with no end in sight! Surely, a storm must come to an end, right? But there are no signs that the waves are dying or that the rain is ceasing.

These life experiences appear as though they disrupt and dismantle everything you know to be true!

Having faith when the storm is raging on is very difficult! (Do you agree?)And will require finding the eye of the storm because the storm is normal in the season we are enduring, and in order to find some peace in the chaos, the very storm that is demolishing the world we know must also become our place of refuge.

Today friend, God is saying,

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
— Isaiah 43:2

God will walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death.

These seasons are for the building of great faith that leads to patience, perseverance and, most importantly, a deeper understanding of who God is.

These types of experiences propel one into their divine destiny. Might I rightly add that these are storms that demand nothing but miracles! (Divine Intervention) Yes, a miracle! I am in need of a miracle because human effort has failed, and God has my attention!

Yes, He does, and I have faith that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living!
Do you friend?

These storms are sent in our lives to show our Heavenly Father’s reckless love for us and that our Father is all-powerful.

If God brought us this way, He has a wonderful plan in which all things are working for our good!
If God brought us this way, our story will be one that will, without a doubt, reflect the endless and reckless love of our Heavenly Father.
You might ask how I know this. I know this because we are still breathing.

I know this because I have been broken, but God my Father is a potter, and He is shaping me into what he intended when He knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Jeremiah 18:1-6

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Today, to anyone that feels they are being crushed or battered mercilessly for too long, I just need to encourage you and tell you to hold on. God will not allow you to walk around with your head down in shame.

Psalm 25:3

No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.

Look on what you face in the light of eternity, friend and it will, until God provides your way out, help to take your focus off the pain you are feeling from the crushing.

Corinthians 4:17

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

Psalm 34:19

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Friend Jesus is with the Father, this I believe! We will see greater things. Continue to believe.

John 14:12

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

I know from past experiences that we serve the God that the wind and the waves obey!

The storms that are raging in our lives must, at the appointed time, find their desired end in the finished work of Christ!

We will see through faith the hand of God in this dispensation.

The will of our Heavenly Father is for us to prosper and be in good health. 

Remember your God is faithful. 

Remember friend; sometimes our Father answers the cry of His beloved children with instant deliverance, and another time He will hold our hands and walk with us through the darkest night.

Remember, God is saying to you today, 

I cut not to destroy or kill you. I cut to prune you so that you can bear more fruit.

1 Peter 4:12

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;

Remember today, friend, the storm/trial that God allows you to face as a believer is to:

1. Test our faith
2. Test our devotion to Christ
3. Demonstrate God’s love, power and care.

Today respond to your storm by believing:

1. God is in control of the intensity and timing of our trials.
2. If God allowed the trial in our lives, He has a specific purpose.
3. God has a specific purpose for this trial.
4. By God’s grace and power, we will overcome.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Morning is 12:01 am when it is still dark.

Today I declare over my storms and the storms that you are facing that morning is coming!

Be Gentle with yourself always.

Keep believing.

Keep trusting.

Today I want to leave these two songs with you, and I pray they encourage you.

Until next time,

Kimberlee

P.S: I am always happy to hear from you in the comments 🤗