The Bible says a lot about storms. And for good reason! Storms are something we all encounter from time to time, and we need to have God’s perspective on how to handle them.
Instead of grumbling and complaining when going through a difficult time in your life, I encourage you to be grateful for these 4 important things you can learn during a storm:
Who your FRIENDS are.
King Solomon wrote, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17 NKJV). Until you face hard times, you never really know how strong your friendships are. The Message paraphrases this verse, “Friends love through all kinds of weather.” In other words, fair-weather friends aren’t really friends at all.
How solid your FOUNDATION is.
Jesus told a famous story about two men who built houses, one on rock and the other on sand (Matthew 7:24-27). On a sunny day, the houses probably looked about the same. But when the storm rains and floods came, only the house built on rock survived. From time to time, God allows a storm to come our way to test our foundation. If we’ve been cultivating our relationship with Him, building our life on His Word, we have nothing to fear.
Where you’re placing your FAITH.
I love the story about storms in Luke 8:22-25, when Jesus and His disciples got into a boat and started crossing the Sea of Galilee. After Jesus fell asleep in the bottom of the boat, a fierce windstorm suddenly put their plans in jeopardy. The terrified disciples woke Jesus up, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (v. 24 NKJV).
When He arose, Jesus had no trouble calming the wind and waves, but then He asked the disciples a challenging question: “Where is your faith?” (v. 25). Although the passage doesn’t provide the answer to Jesus’ question, it’s actually pretty clear: The disciples had initially put their faith in their circumstances – the things they could see with their natural eyes. Instead, they should have cast off their fears and immediately put their faith in Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
When a crisis strikes, there are many other places where we can direct our faith. We can put our trust in friends, doctors, government, bank accounts, “luck,” or simply our own ingenuity. But sadly, we too often cry out to the Lord only after everything else has failed.
How you see your FUTURE.
Faced with a seemingly insurmountable storm, the disciples quickly jumped to the conclusion that they were perishing. How’s that for an optimistic outlook?
However, the disciples had overlooked what Jesus told them earlier in the passage: “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake” (v. 22). Friend, when Jesus says you’re going to cross OVER, there’s no way a storm can take you UNDER! You see, the Lord had already foretold that they would safely arrive at the other side of the lake, so there was no way they were going to perish halfway through their journey.
In the same way, God has planned a victorious future for you and me. In every storm, we can put our hope in His promises as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19 NKJV). Even when our boat seems about to capsize, we can confidently trust that our anchor to God’s Word will hold!
Once we understand these 4 powerful lessons, we’ll give God thanks instead of complaints when the storms of life come. With storm-tested faith, we’ll be confident that adversity doesn’t come to punish us or perplex us, but rather to prepare us for great things ahead.