Storms Happen

SYNOPSIS: There is nothing quite like the unleashed power of nature to remind you of how small, insignificant, and truly powerless you are. A fierce storm can be quite unnerving. And so are personal storms! You may be going through one right now. In many respects, the fury of nature is nothing compared to the devastating power of a personal storm. As surely as that storm reminds you of how small, insignificant, and powerless you are, I want to remind you that your God is bigger than your storm, and He is going to see you through it. That’s not to minimize the sense of desperation your storm has brought upon you, but stay secure in this: While storms happen, so does God! In fact, Psalm 104:4 says He makes the fierce winds and the flashing lightning His servants. He will make them yours, too!

Moments With God // Claim Psalm 104:7,32

But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight… he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

There is nothing quite as unnerving as the fury of nature. I’ve never been in a massive earthquake, but the minor ones I’ve been in have been enough to make me shake in my boots. I’ve never been in a hurricane, but I’ve been on the outskirts of a small tornado, and its aftermath blew me away. I’ve never seen hailstones the size of a softball, but I got caught in a storm that pinged me with golf ball-sized hail, and it was enough to send chills up and down my spine.

There is nothing quite like the unleashed power of nature to remind you of how small, insignificant, and truly powerless you are.

Then there are personal storms! You may be going through one right now. In many respects, the fury of nature is nothing compared to the devastating power of a personal storm. In any given week, a half-dozen people will describe to me their own personal storms—everything from unbelievably huge financial crises to untreatable physical ailments to unrelenting relational disasters to unyielding emotional trauma—truly big, hairy, audacious personal gale-force storms. And for the most part, from what I can tell at least, those storms are not the fault of the ones forced to endure them.

You see, storms happen!

I would rather face nature than go through what many of those people are going through. At least a tornado, an earthquake, or a hailstorm comes to an end—and then you can pick up the pieces and begin to rebuild. Most of the time, a personal storm has no end in sight. And when you are in one, you are constantly reminded of how small, insignificant, and truly powerless you are. But there is One who is bigger than the storm. And the psalmist reminds us,

He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. (Psalm 104:3-4)

If you are in a personal storm, I don’t know how long or how devastating it will be, but I do know that God will make your storm his servant—which means that since you belong to God, he will make your storm servant to you as well. God will work the storm for your good—his promise, not mine!

I don’t mean to minimize the sense of desperation your storm has brought you—I think I understand a little of what you are going through. But as surely as the storm reminds you of how small, insignificant and powerless you are, I want to remind you that your God is bigger than your storm, and he is going to see you through it.

Storms happen—but so does God!