Passing Through the Storms of Life

Psalm 107:23-32 | 2 Samuel 11:1-5 | Psalm 103:19 | Isaiah 55:8-11 | Jonah 1:1-17

We all experience storms in our lives—those occasions that bring

pain, suffering, or loss.

It is in turbulent times that all sorts of questions come to mind: Where is God?
Why has this happened? Was it something I did? Did God cause it? If
so, why? The only safe place to go for answers in tumultuous times is God’s
Word.

The underlying foundation for understanding the storms of life is found in Psa
103:19, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His
sovereignty rules over all.” And in Psa 107:23-32, a descriptive example of a
literal storm provides insight into the Lord’s role in the various storms that come
our way.

The scene is a ship at sea battling the wind and waves. In the midst of misery and
helplessness, the sailors call out for God’s help, and He brings them out of their
distress by calming the storm and safely guiding them to their desired haven. In
response, they thank the Lord for His lovingkindness and wondrous deliverance
and extol Him to the people.

Was God in the storm?

According to v.25, the answer is YES: “For He spoke and raised up a stormy
wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.”
¥ Sometimes the Lord interrupts our lives by sending turbulence, but on
other occasions, we create the chaotic conditions with our sinful choices.
¥ Our troubles could also be the result of natural occurrences.
¥ No matter what the source, ultimately, God is in every situation because
His sovereignty rules over all.

There are three kinds of storms.

¥ Natural storms à Hurricanes, floods, landslides and tornadoes.

¥ Emotional storms à These are often worse than physical storms and
include the following situations:
| Poor health.
| Financial struggles. Economic downturns or the loss of a job.
| Relationship difficulties. Stormy conditions in the home, feelings of
rejection, all cause stress and grind at our hearts.

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¥ Spiritual storms à Disobeying God and choosing our own way results in
spiritual turbulence as the Holy Spirit convicts us. Being outside His will
changes our conduct, conversation, and character, making us at odds with
what the Lord wants us to be.

What are the Sources of our Storms?

¥ Ourselves. We can bring trouble upon ourselves with willful disobedience.
As a result, we may become fearful or anxious, feel distant from God, blame
others, become useless for God’s work, or ruin our testimony.

¥ The devil. Satan creates a storm through temptation. David’s sin (2 Sam
11:1-5) shows the progression of temptation.
| David was where he shouldn’t have been. When his army went to battle,
he stayed at home.
| He saw what he shouldn’t have seen. Walking on his rooftop, he saw a
woman bathing, and instead of turning away, he kept looking.
| His look turned to lust, and he sent for her
| His lust gave birth to an act of sin.

David was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with a wrong look
and wrong thoughts. This led to pregnancy, continuing course of sinful
actions, and painful consequences that lasted a lifetime.

¥ God. Sometimes the Lord brings storms into our lives for His divine
purposes. Although they are painful, God is motivated by His love for us.

Why does God Allow Storms in our lives?

1. To get our attention. The Lord speaks to us quietly in our hearts, but if we
don’t pay attention, He will raise the volume by sending a storm into our lives.

2. To bring us to repentance. God used a literal storm to draw Jonah to

repentance (Jon 1:1-17). Although the Lord told him to go to Nineveh to “cry
against it for their wickedness,” Jonah boarded a ship “to flee to Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord” (v2-3). But no one can avoid God, since
He is omnipresent.

| While Jonah slept, the Lord “hurled a great wind on the sea” (v4). All
the sailors called on their gods, hoping that one of them would
intervene. They cast lots to see which of them was to blame for the
storm, and the lot fell to Jonah. He had foolishly tried to flee from God
by leaving the land and going to sea, both of which were created
and controlled by Him.

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 | Although Jonah tried to escape from the Lord, God never left
him. Even in the sea, He rescued Jonah by sending a great fish
to swallow him. Eventually he was vomited onto land and made his
way to Nineveh to preach as the Lord had commanded. Yet even then,
he resented the fact that the people repented and would no longer be
judged for their evil ways.

| Similarly, we bring trouble upon ourselves when we try to run

away from God. Yet like Jonah, we’ll discover that He is always with
us, even in our disobedience. His desire is that we repent and return to
Him.

3. To conform us to Christ’s image. God is willing to break us and cause

suffering to glorify Himself by making us like His Son.

4. To equip us for service. Having suffered through painful storms, we come

out better equipped to be helpful to others.

5. To demonstrate His power in our lives. God powerfully uses the

situation to make us more useful than we were before.

6. To reveal Himself to us. Turbulent times give us a new perspective on the

Lord and how He works. Sometimes this comes after the storm when we look
back and see how He brought us through it. Then we understand better that
His strength was sufficient for us and His purpose was good.

7. To demonstrate His love. Once we understand that God’s thoughts and

ways are so much higher than ours, we’ll realize that any storm He brings is
motivated by His love.

8. To remind us who is in control. Because His knowledge is complete, God

never makes mistakes. Nothing happens in our lives without His permissive
will. His good purpose, mighty power, and unfailing love always govern the
storms that come our way.

RESPONSE
¥ How do you usually respond to the storms in your life?
¥ How does it make you feel knowing that God is in control?
¥ As you look back on past storms, what has the Lord taught you about Himself
and His ways?

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 OTHER CHARGES

¥ Some of life’s storms—a great sorrow, a bitter disappointment, a crushing

defeat—suddenly come upon us. Others may come slowly, appearing on
the uneven edge of the horizon no larger than a person’s hand. But trouble
that seems so insignificant spreads until it covers the sky and overwhelms us.
A furious squall came up. (Mark 4:37)

¥ Yet it is in the storm that God equips us for service. When God wants an oak
tree, He plants it where the storms will shake it and the rains will beat down
upon it. It is in the midnight battle with the elements that the oak develops its
rugged fiber and becomes the king of the forest.

¥ When God wants to make a person, He puts him into some storm. The history
of humankind has always been rough and rugged. No one is complete until he
has been out into the surge of the storm and has found the glorious fulfillment
of the prayer “O God, take me, break me, make me.”

¥ The beauties of nature come after the storm. The rugged beauty of the
mountain is born in a storm, and the heroes of life are the storm-swept and
battle-scarred.

¥ You have been in the storms and swept by the raging winds. Have they left you
broken, weary, and beaten in the valley, or have they lifted you to the sunlit
summits of a richer, deeper, more abiding manhood or womanhood? Have
they left you with more sympathy for the storm-swept and the battle-scarred?
The wind that blows can never kill the tree God plants;
It blows toward east, and then toward west,
The tender leaves have little rest, But any wind that blows is best.
The tree that God plants Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,
Spreads greater limbs, for God’s good will Meets all its wants.

There is no storm with power to blast The tree God knows;

No thunderbolt, nor beating rain, Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;
When they are spent, it does remain,
The tree God knows, Through every storm it still stands fast,
And from its first day to its last Still fairer grows.

He knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold
(Job 23:10)

¥ Faith grows during storms. It deals with the supernatural and makes
impossible things possible. It grows through disturbances in the spiritual
atmosphere. Storms are caused by conflicts between the physical elements,
and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with supernatural, hostile

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 elements. And it is in this atmosphere of conflict that faith finds its most
fertile soil and grows most rapidly to maturity.

¥ The strongest trees are found not in the thick shelter of the forest but out in
the open, where winds from every direction bear down upon them. The fierce
winds bend and twist them until they become giant in stature. These are the
trees that tool-makers seek for handles for their tools, because of the wood’s
great strength.

¥ It is the same in the spiritual world. Remember, when you see a person of
great spiritual stature, the road you must travel to walk with him is not one
where the sun always shines and wildflowers always bloom. Instead, the way
is a steep, rocky, and narrow path, where the winds of hell will try to knock
you off your feet, and where sharp rocks will cut you, prickly thorns will
scratch your face, and poisonous snakes will slither and hiss all around you.

The path of faith is one of sorrow and joy, suffering and healing comfort, tears
and smiles, trials and victories, conflicts and triumphs, and also hardships,
dangers, beatings, persecutions, misunderstanding, trouble, and distress. Yet “in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom.
8:37).

¥ Yes, “in all these”—even during storms, when the winds are the most
intense—“we are more than conquerors.” You may be tempted to run from
the ordeal of a fierce storm of testing, but head straight for it! God is there to
meet you in the center of each trial. And He will whisper to you His secrets,
which will bring you out with a radiant face and such an invincible faith that
all the demons of hell will never be able to shake it.

¥ An old seaman once said, “In fierce storms we must do one thing, for there is
only one way to survive: we must put the ship in a certain position and
keep her there.” And this, dear Christian, is what you must do.

¥ Sometimes, like Paul, you cannot see the sun or the stars to help you navigate
when the storm is bearing down on you. This is when you can do only one
thing, for there is only one way. Reason cannot help you, past experiences will
shed no light, and even prayer will bring no consolation. Only one course
remains: you must put your soul in one position and keep it there.

¥ You must anchor yourself steadfastly upon the Lord. And then, come what
may—whether wind, waves, rough seas, thunder, lightning, jagged rocks, or
roaring breakers—you must lash yourself to the helm, firmly holding your
confidence in God’s faithfulness, His covenant promises, and His everlasting
love in Christ Jesus.

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 SATAN'S OBJECTIVE

¥ What Satan wants to do the minute he sees you are beginning to get a
revelation from the Word of God about your rights and benefits as a born-
again believer is to come immediately and steal that Word out of your heart.
| He wants to steal the Word before you have time to develop any roots.
| He wants to break you off from your life source.
| He wants to keep you away from your life source long enough for you to
wither up and die.

¥ But what God wants you to do is stay in the water—the water of the Word
(Eph 5:26)—long enough to develop roots of your own, because you're not
going to produce fruit until you have roots.
| So if the devil can steal the Word from you before it develops a root in
you and you become established in it, you'll never get the fruit the Word
is supposed to produce in your life.

¥ The key to developing the root of what you get from God's Word is to stay in
the water day in and day out, until you finally develop a root. And once you
get the root, you're guaranteed the fruit. You can eat fruit off the Word once
you're rooted in it. However, the devil knows that if you develop roots in God's
Word, then you're going to be able to overcome all the trouble he's throwing at
you. So his first objective is to keep you out of the Word.

¥ The Bible says we shouldn't be surprised if trouble seems to increase the

minute we start applying the Word to our lives. Paul says:
... all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2
Tim 3:12

¥ And Peter warns us:

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 1 Pet 4:12

¥ Unfortunately, there seem to be many faith people who think it's a strange
thing if they have some persecution. They seem to have the idea that because
they now walk by faith, they're not supposed to have problems.

¥ But of course that's not true. The Bible tells us to expect persecution and
trouble to increase when we get born again, because the devil is desperate to
keep the Word of God from taking root and producing fruit in our lives. In the
parable of the sower in Mark 4, Jesus explained Satan's part in our trouble.
 

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