Peace is a PersonSample

The Potential of Storms

Why does it seem that God isn’t in sync with our life? We’d appreciate a glassy, calm, sea, thank you very much! 

We love comfort. We want trouble-free days without any issues. We want spouses and kids who don’t conflict, coworkers who aren’t annoying, and appliances and vehicles that never break down. We view any disturbance to our schedule or agenda as a huge problem. We, or those close to us, must be doing something wrong. Something needs to change! 

But, the irony is, without storms and difficulties, we have no need for peace! 

Storms and hardships have great potential to break us, to take us out, to remove us from our purpose, or at very least, to distort our focus. Our unrelenting enemy never misses an opportunity to bring his lies and accusations with the expectation to steal our peace, kill our trust, and ultimately to destroy our faith. 

But storms also have the opportunity to build us. It is in the storm that we get to practice our faith and trust in God and our love for others. Amazingly, it takes no faith to agree with and believe the enemy’s accusations: This is too hard. It won’t matter what you choose.Think about yourself! It’s not worth the fight. Pushing against worry and concern takes determined activation of faith and belief in what God says and can do. I choose to trust You! I am waiting for You to come through. I believe You see me and somehow, some way, You are working this all for my good.

What might happen if instead of trying to avoid life’s storms, we met our difficult situations head-on? What if we pushed through our fears and relinquished our control? What if we saw these hard times as opportunities for spiritual growth and an enlarging of our heart? What if our willingness to step into the hard teaches our children and those around us things they might never learn?

One summer a while back, 21 members of our family, ages 5 to 65, set out to climb Mt. Uncompahgre, a 14,308 foot mountain in Colorado. Parts of this climb were very difficult and took many grueling hours. Many times we wanted to give up, even questioning what we were doing. The peak seemed to be getting further away. The air was thin and it was hard to catch a breath. There were many tears and complaints. This is too hard! What if we fall? Are we going to die? We encouraged each other with loud mantras, I can and I will! Marine it! At last we finally stepped into that beautiful, wide expanse in what seemed to be the top of the world! Elation, relief, joy, peace! We made it! Our children and even our young grandchildren accomplished one of the hardest things they would ever do. Forever changed by the difficulties we endured, this transformation has stuck with us all to this day.

Prepare your heart to expect storms and difficulties so you won’t be caught off-guard when they happen. From His peace and presence, you are fully equipped with strength and courage to make it through to the other side. As you willingly step into difficult situations and choose to see them as opportunities for increase, you will gain confidence and inner strength from His invisible presence. Your abilities will be enlarged beyond what you ever thought possible. Most importantly, you will be able to tell those behind you that they will successfully make it through their own storms, not on their own, but with Peace in their heart.

Every storm we encounter has potential to destroy us but Peace promises to guard our hearts and mind. When we courageously meet that storm head-on, hand-in-hand with Him, we will lose only the things that need to die: sin, pride, negativity, criticism, selfishness, resentment. Things that hold us in deep bondage and prevent us from being who God has called us to be. Things that need to die so that we can be fully alive in Him. 

I imagine our trust in Jesus brings a smile to His face as He guides us through to freedom on the other side. When our eyes remain on Him in the deepest, darkest storm, we will have peace, because Peace is a Person.