Living in southern California, we don’t experience inclement weather very often. As a result, unlike most places in the world, when rain approaches, you’ll see Facebook status updates excited about the impending storm. (Of course, we are rather fickle in our excitement because it only takes a few consecutive days of rain for the complaints to supplant the former excitement.) For us, rain is viewed as a nice change of pace, rather than the inconvenience and hassle that most geographies consider it.
The reason that rain is often disparaged is because other places are too familiar with the destruction that storms can bring. Devastation often follows a downpour and the effects are real and lasting. However, in the storms in life, much like the Californian, the Christian should have a different perspective on the rain. As Charles H. Spurgeon reminds us,
Fear not the storm, it brings healing in its wings, and when Jesus is with you in the vessel, the tempest only hastens the ship to its desired haven.
We know that storms cause us to be tossed about, but as the great English preacher exhorts us, followers of Christ also known that in that turmoil, He is bringing us to the harbor. He controls the waves of the ocean, and the waves of our lives, and He often uses the swells to bring us to His desired destination. This doesn’t mean conquering the tempest will be easy, but it does mean that we can trust that He is using the crests and the crashes to accomplish His purposes. And because we are His, we know that wherever He brings us, in His love, we are safe.
May we increasingly see the storms of this life as an opportunity for God to hasten us to His haven, and may we trust in where the One who commands the waves, leads.
Share your thoughts…
How have you seen God use storms to bring you to the harbor?