A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Proverbs 17:22 NKJV
In the last two and a half weeks, we have been through two hurricanes, an evacuation, a flood and are hosting a lady and her dog who lost their home. (Did I mention no garbage pick-up or mail!) With so much craziness it is easy to lose sight of the blessings that God has showered us with during this time. So, I thought now would be a great time to list a few of the blessings we have to be thankful for.
!) Banjo our foster dog and my new walking buddy –
2) A beautiful swan along with his buddies the ducks who greeted us at our evacuation home.
3) The lemon tree dropped enough lemons to make lemonade!
4) In the middle of all the disasters around us we never lost power!
5) I found a place to buy coffee this morning!
6) Friends, family members and neighbors we haven’t heard from in a while called to check in on us.
7) God has been with us every step of the way, kept us in health and taught us to count our blessings through everything ahead!
For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, 24 and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’. Acts 27:23-24 NLT
I had meant to write part two to this series sooner, but with our last two days filled with evacuating and setting up forty miles inland, things have been a bit busy. But as we await the arrival of hurricane Milton, I thought of the Apostle Paul who weathered a storm so long ago. Paul’s storm experience, unlike Jonah’s was not because of disobedience. He was there because of the decisions of others. Yet, in that storm, even as a prisoner chained below deck in a Roman ship, Paul continued to trust God. Meanwhile, topside, even the sailors were in desperation. They had battled through that tempest, without even being able to see either the sun or stars for two weeks. Yet when all hope seemed lost to everyone else, God sent an angel with a message for Paul, “Don’t be afraid Paul… God has granted you safety!”
To me one of the most amazing and wonderful thing about this message is that the deliverance that Paul was promised included even the very people who had put him in that storm! And even though it may feel frustrating being thrust into problems that you didn’t cause, God has a plan for good, and not only for you. Maybe that is you today. Your problem, your storm, and your dilemma has stuck you in a corner that you cannot get out of. But the good news is that we don’t need to figure a way out: God in HIs grace already has! Yet, in spite of the fact that God is going to do all the miraculous stuff that only He can do in our storm, He has given us something to do. “Don’t be afraid!”, or in the words of Jesus from John chapter fourteen, “Don’t let your heart be troubled!” God will do all the saving we need in any storm, but we must do the trusting. Jesus will calm the highest strongest winds and highest waves, but our part is to believe. Jesus has promised to be with us even to the end of the world. He will be by our side through this hurricane and by yours in whatever storm you are facing. Even if like Jonah, you brough this storm on yourself, God still has a way out and a way back to Him. Or if like Paul, others have made decisions about things that are out of your control, God has grace enough to help both you and them, if we will simply trust Him, encourage one another with His message and then do the small things that He asks for us to do.
This morning, we are once more, right dead center in the track of another hurricane and making preparations to evacuate. I wish I could tell you that I have wonderful, sweet peace just trusting in Jesus: but that would be a fairy tale. In reality I am stressed and checking the forecast and radar images wondering when we should leave and what will become of our home. When Hurricane Helene passed by last week, it left flooding on a scale I have never seen. Thousands of people including several friends of ours have been forced to move out until they have major repairs done. One dear sister came to live with us a few days ago and last night all we began packing to move even further inland. While I was tossing and turning in bed, I began remembering three men who managed to sleep soundly in their storms. Today I just wanted to take a look at one of them, whose name was Jonah.
But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD...…But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. Jonah 1:2;4b NIV
Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of storms of our own choosing. The Bible calls the choices that lead to these kinds of storms sin. Like Jonah, we know what God wants, yet rather than obeying we, “Flee from the Lord.” Maybe like Jonah, we should have known better. After all, Jonah was a prophet, he knew the Bible backwards and forwards and had spent his entire adult life teaching other people how God wanted them to live. But when God came to Jonah with the assignment of preaching to people that weren’t his friends, his neighbors, or even from his own nation, he decided he had a better idea: run! Instead of heading where God called him, Jonah got on a boat going in the opposite direction and then went into his cabin and fell sound asleep. Now sleeping in a storm sounds like a wonderful privilege of those who love God, but Jonah was really just falling asleep at the switch. Jonah might have thought God would just let him off the hook, but he soon found out that running from God’s was a very poor business model, because God sent a storm. The funny thing about this part of the story is that everyone but Jonah figured out that something was wrong. The sailors were all doing their best to keep the ship from sinking, they were even urgently praying to their idols for help. Finally, when the captain of the boat went looking for this strange fellow who wasn’t helping out and found him snoozing in his hammock. The shocked captain grabbed Jonah by the shoulder asking, “How in the world can you sleep in this?” Isn’t it amazing how God sometimes sends the most unlikely person to confront us about our sins. The bartender tells us we have had too much to drink. The policeman pulls us over or the doctor asks why in the world we keep eating so much ice cream when our cholesterol is through the roof! You see God has ways of getting his way with or without our permission and sometimes He uses a storm. It isn’t that God likes to see us suffer or gets amusement by watching us run frantically in circles. The problems He sends put us in a corner because He cares about us. If we will just wake up and listen, we will hear His voice calling us back even above the howling of the wind and the crashing of the thunder. So, if we are facing a storm, maybe the first question we need to ask, is: “Am I running from God’s plans?”. In the end God will have his way – anyway. So, why not line up your way with God’s way? When you do, before you know it, He will calm the storm and lead you safely home!
praise2worshipdotnet 
You must be logged in to post a comment.