Have you ever had a day when things were going along just
fine and dandy then suddenly something happens to cause you to stumble? What do
you do when this happens? Where do you go to get out of the gloom or even
depression or despair? Lets look-
Where is your faith?
In His Word!
Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the
water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them,
"Where is your faith?" Luke 8:24-25
So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in
God.” Mark 11:22-23
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3
Do not put your trust
in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs,
he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish. Happy is he who has
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God, Ps 146:3-5
Isn’t it nice
to have a God who we can run to when there is a storm raging around or even
inside us? Maybe you let the circumstances of your day get to you, or maybe you
tripped and injured yourself one too many times and are limping around with a
torn heart? Whatever it is that you are suffering through God is there with
you. He wants to take the controls and let you ride along.
The problem is we, as humans want to take control of our
lives. We are taught from childhood that we need to be our own man or woman. So
if we are supposed to take charge and control our destiny, when something comes
along and jars our plans we tend to lash out in anger or desperation. We try to
defy the circumstances by denying them and trying to make them go away by
ignoring the situation. Of course we can not always do that. Most of the time
we just end up fussing and fuming and not really getting anywhere.
I suppose eventually that we will realize that it is not
about us but about Him in us. His will in our lives. His direction and control
will guide us safely to the shore, with peace and stillness! We but need to put
our trust and our faith in Him to do what He said. Plain and simple, that is
it.
We need to trust God to help us keep our tongues from lashing
out at those who try to trip us, and trust that He will repay as His Word says
vengeance belongs to Him not us. We need to realize also that we are who we are
in Christ because it is who He created us to be! Yes God has created you to do
His work, His will in your life in His way. Maybe you might think that makes
Him selfish, well if it does then its okay by me! God has a plan and a purpose
for each of us, but its not just for His glory, but for us to have abundant
life, full of peace and joy! It is first of all for His glory, not secondary
and ours because He loves us He wishes us to have life abundantly! More
abundantly it says in His Word! He wants
things to work out for us. He does not wish for us to suffer in the storms of
life.
Watching the wind
and the rain, and the dark clouds come and go bye today I thought about God and
His peace. I was safe and warm in my peaceful surroundings, yet outside it was pouring down buckets of rain and wind that caused thoughts of building an ark come to mind. It was torrents! Yet it did not bother me at all because I was safe and
warm.
I think that is how we need to look at our spiritual or emotional storms as they come to us. We need to realize that they are only blowing on the outside of us. The troubles can come at us, stress at work not getting done is tangible, not emotional. The thing is if we can remain calm knowing we trust in God to take care of us, then the storms will pass without much danger to us. If we choose to dash out into the pouring rain and wind that could topple us over or cause a branch to fall off of our tree hitting us in the head, well that is another story!
When we choose to fight back at the
storm, verbally, we can do more harms than good. But if we choose to remove ourselves
from the situation, such as going to the place we know is safe and warm, we can find comfort and even peace. We
need to seek our Lord, ask Him what to do and then we can make a good choice to
follow God’s path. We can even find a way to get through arguing with someone at work by seeking Gods peace and guidance.
But how can we remember to keep our
mouth shut and not rebuke the person who lashed out at us? Or how can we not respond to an accusation when we know we were not wrong?
Well, a wise person once said that we speak what we put in our minds, hearts and ears. What comes in will go out. If it comes in nasty it will go out nasty. We need to surround ourselves with people and places that will complement us, encourage us to be kind to one another. As the Word of God says, we are to build one another up in Love. This is something we should do often. The people we hang out with the majority of our time will influence our thought process and our peace level. The people we listen to, or even the shows we watch will influence what comes out of us in peace or anger.
In order to build one another up we
need to dig into the Word of God daily and think on what we have read. Write
about it in a journal if it helps you remember it. Sing it in a song to remind
you of His direction for your life. Teach yourself to speak the Truth in love,
not in harshness. And remind yourself to do unto others, as you would have them
do unto you. If you want someone to be a friend, be his or her friend first. If
you wish someone would write you a letter asking how you are doing and letting
them know they are praying for you, write to someone and tell them that. If you
want to hear someone encourage you in your days, then encourage someone else in
his or hers. God is awesome and He knows just who needs a word of encouragement. If you listen to Him each day He will direct you to the person who you are
supposed to help to smile. The person you are to pray for, or the person whom
you can help physically. But it is not about what you think you should do, but
what He wants you to do. To listen you need to stop talking and just sit there sometimes, and other times you need to pay attention to whom God brings in your path. It will not be hard to find someone else to encourage, today the world is full of discouraging words, speak life instead of pain or death!
Sometimes we try to take things into our own hands, just as the disciples did in the boat, they tried to let Jesus sleep, and battled the storm on their own. Just look when they called on Him, when they were about to perish. Then Jesus spoke to the storm and calmed it.We should call upon Jesus and be saved! Call out to Him then pay attention for the answer you seek. It will come if you focus on the Word and His direction in it. Look for peace, and you will find it if you look for Him in the peace!
Dear Heavenly Father, I do not wish to perish, calm the
storm in me today. Help me to do Your will in my life today and every day. Help
me to give you the hurts that are tossed my way and to allow you to heal me.
Help me to keep my mouth from speaking hurtful things, but instead to speak
kindness and healing on my brothers and sisters. Bless me in all that I do
today, let it bring You glory. In Jesus name, amen.
Suggested Readings for
this week;
Monday: Luke 8-all
Tuesday: Mark 11-all
Wednesday: Hebrews
11-all
Thursday: Psalm
146-1-10
Friday: Psalm 35-all
Weekend readings: Psalm 101
***If for any reason you choose ever not to receive this
devotion again please remember that all it takes is replying with a
"Please remove me from this list." I do ask that if there is a
problem with anything I write for you to feel free to write me back and let me
know what the problem was, that we might go over it together and seek the truth
in love.
In His love,
Teresa M. Wilson
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If
God is for us, who can be against us?
(from New International Version)