In my life, I have been through storms of every kind: small storms, big storms, spiritual storms, mental storms, and storms that changed my life forever. Honestly, haven’t we all? Although actual storms scare me, the storms of life that can’t be seen are even scarier. These are the types of storms that come into our lives and cause strife and heartache and steal away our peace. When I was younger, I always thought that the storms I was facing then were as bad as anything I could ever face, Now I realize just how wrong I was. The storms I thought were tornadoes then, now just look like rainstorms in my rearview. Unfortunately, I have faced more storms recently than ever before. I worry. I stress. I get overwhelmed. Life gets the best of me. But I’m a control freak. I like to have control over the things in my life and it’s honestly one of my biggest faults. So naturally, I have tried every way in the world to fix the problem myself. Fortunately, God sends what we need to hear right when we need to hear it.
This morning, my pastor read Matthew 8:23-27 which says, “And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; there was a great calm.”
As many times as I have heard this story, something instantly clicked inside of me when I read it today:
If my God can calm actually storms, the wind, the sea, everything, why am I not asking him to calm the storms in me?
If He can control all things with such ease, why am i trying to control everything myself?
And then I looked at the beginning of verse 26: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?’’
Immediately I asked myself, where is my faith? The same God who calmed this storm wants to calm my storms. The same God that spoke peace into their life wants to speak peace into mine. The same God who took care of the disciplines, when they were fearing for their lives, wants to take care of me. So why do I try to calm my own storms? I need to put my faith in God and know that if it’s His will, he will take the storms out of my life
I thought to myself later today “what if it’s not God’s will to end the storm? What if he sees the need for that storm in my life?” God placed on my heart to read 1 Peter 5:6-7. It says “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” Now I don’t know about y’all, but this verse condemns me but brings me so much joy at the same time. First of all, I have to humble myself to allow God to work in my life. He is so much greater than I am, so why do I think I can do a better job of controlling my life than Him? But then I read the next part of verse six. I’m going to be completely honest and just say that I didn’t exactly know what “exalt” meant. So I looked it up and it said “to raise something to a higher level.” Now you’re saying, “what in the world does that have to do with me getting through the storms in my life?” Stay with me here, this is about to get good.
When there is a storm and a plane must take flight, it doesn’t stay at the same level of the storm the whole time, does it? Of course not! It doesn’t fly under the storm, does it? So what does it do? The pilot goes above the storm. He flies above it, where it is peaceful and there appears to be no storm. Are you ready for this? God is our pilot and although there may be storms in our life, He has the control to fly us above the storm. He will exalt us, if we humble ourselves before him and cast our cares on him as it says in verse seven. Sometimes it may not always be in God’s will to end the storms in our life, but you know what the wonderful thing is? No matter how bad the storm is, God can fly us above it and give us the peace we need in our life in His perfect timing. He cares for us. He wants to help us through storms and speak peace into our lives. We just have to be willing to move out of the pilot's seat and let him take control.
Whatever storm you’re going through, God knows. It may seem like he’s sleeping as he was on the ship, but just have faith. Don’t be like the disciplines and start to doubt. Give it all to him and know that He has a plan for your life. Although that plan may include storms, let God pilot your plane through them. There will be peace on the other side.
