Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Paul Chappell
Your Endurance
Instead of praying for weaker winds, maybe we should pray for stronger wings, because stronger wings can carry us through storms better than untested wings. It is the tests that reveal how our strong or how weak our faith in God is, but also shows how much we’ll depend on God or if we’re just depending on ourselves. An untested faith is an untrusted faith.
His Glory
If we are seeking to glorify God, which we should all be doing, we won’t allow the storms of life to make us bitter. We can give thanks in all things, and that includes the bad, because God uses bad for good (Gen 50:20), but if you suffer persecution for Jesus’ sake, you have the spirit of the glory of God resting on you, and who wouldn’t want that (1st Pet 4:16), “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1st Pet 4:19).
Our Trust
When we have finally passed through a very long and difficult trial, we can learn from experience to trust God in the storms. It’s the storm that drives us to our knees; it’s the storm that makes us pray; and it’s passing through the storm that helps us trust. God never promises to take us over, around, or under the storm, and He doesn’t promise to keep us out of the storms, but He does promise to go through them with us. He’s with us in the boat in the tempests on the sea.
Conclusion
God is working in us endurance, and that works patience in us, and after a few storms in life, maybe we’ll see that storms are designed to make us stronger; it’s purpose is to glorify God; and it’s going to help us trust God more, even after the storm has passed.
