Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Facing Life's Storms

“9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:9-10 NIV).

Hurricane Ivan ripped a devastating path through the Gulf of Mexico and into the U.S. Almost daily I watch reports of new damage, deaths, and devastation due to its wind and rains. In the U.S. the damage extends from the Gulf Coast up to West Virginia. People in many of these areas had to be evacuated from their homes and rushed to places of safety set up in each state of the Hurricane’s ravaging path.

Many of us face our own individual Ivans–storms in our lives that wreck havoc with our peace, threaten our possessions, devastate our emotions and leave us wondering why me?

No human being can always answer that why question. Some things frankly we don’t know and won’t know this side of eternity. What we can know is the marvelous promises of God’s Word that assure us that (1) we can find safety in Him and (2) He’ll never let us down! The storms of life may rage, God never promises to keep us from them, but He does promise to be with us in them!

Perhaps you are facing a storm today I want to encourage you to cry out to God and put your trust in Him. I know from personal experience, He won’t let you down. Even if you can’t see what He’s doing, you can rest assured that He has not lost control of the situation and He has not forsaken you.

Alan Redpath put it this way: "There is nothing -- no circumstance, no trouble, no testing -- that can touch me until, first of all it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with some great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is."

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