I get it.
The mundane days. The repetitive schedules. Seeing the same faces in the classroom or in the office every day. The continued workouts that promise results, but just leave you feeling empty and unmotivated.
Life has just gotten to you lately. It seems as if the waves of life are about to crash into you at full force.
Expensive bills, annoying bosses and coworkers, busy schedules, family problems, relationship issues. You are so overwhelmed that you feel like you are about to drown in the deep waters that are surrounding you.
But what if I told you there is someone who will stand with you in that ocean when the storm and the waves are continuously knocking you down and ferociously tossing your boat around, and just when you feel like you are about to capsize, this person assures you that you will make it out alive.
It would be hard to believe, right?
You are about to drown in these rough waters and to your knowledge, there is no escape, yet there is someone next to you who is making these promises to you that he can help you.
Would you trust him? Would you trust him when his experience is your only option? Would you trust him when all of your attempts to save yourself have failed?
You don't understand how this man's promises can be true. How could he get you out of something that seems so impossible?
But you also know that you can't get out on your own. You know that you will die fighting the battle for your own life.
The truth is... you absolutely cannot survive this storm on your own. But by taking this man's advice and trusting him, you have a newfound hope, even if you cannot see the outcome.
This man, His name is Jesus. And He promises to never leave you. He promises to stand right next to you in the waves that keep knocking you down and help you up each time that you fall.
"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." // Isaiah 43:1-3
You may ask, "why can He not just stop the waves? Life would be so much easier if the waves just stopped knocking me over."
The thing is, He can stop the waves. But that does not mean that He always will. Because sometimes the waves that hit us are exactly the moments in which we learn to trust Him completely. We are able to flourish in our faith in the midst of trials and tribulation.
Plus, how can we drown in the waves our trials when we remember that we have a God that, in place of us, experienced the greatest trial in history?
Great theologian Charles Spurgeon once spoke, "I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages."
We can embrace the storms that are thrown at us because we have a Savior and a Rescuer that meets us exactly where we are. And many times in this crazy life, that is right in the middle of a treacherous storm.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." // James 1:2
God's promises are so so good. And so so true.
He is near to us. He promises to never leave. He is supreme over all things, even the things that seem like they are surrounding you and leaving you with no way out.
JESUS IS GREATER than everything you are facing today -- stress, anxiety, worry, envy, anger, loneliness, depression -- Jesus is so much greater than it all. And He promises to stand right next to us through it all.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." // Romans 8:28
