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The storm is churning out there in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re not quite close enough to the shore for the salty sprays to reach us, but the storm is undeniably here.
Majestic palms are whipping with a force that calmer days, most days, never know. The strength of the storm battles against the sheer determination each leafy green branch. Try as they may to hold on, fly away palms litter the beach, and cause drivers reflexively to duck their heads as the sky grows closer throwing these wayward branches into cars and roadways. The storm blows all around!
You probably know the account of Jesus and some of His apostles out on the boat when a horrendous storm tossed around their vessel. I remember my own boys playing with my beloved childhood toy: 3 men in a tub. Maybe you know the one I’m talking about: a round, yellow, floating tub, a flag atop a spring coming up through the middle of their boat, and three wobbly little men who fit inside perfectly.; their bottoms as round as their ship and much bigger than their heads. Each of them dressed for work: the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. I am sure this piece of memorabilia made it to the “keep” box of treasures, ode to Andy and Toy Story.
Their vessel was buoyant and the little bell would ring when the water got a little too rough out on the seas of bedtime ‘tubbies’ for the butcher, the baker and candlestick maker. Indeed, if there’d been a bell on the ship where Jesus was fast asleep, maybe even those way back on shore would have heard it. THEY had an emergency.
They had an emergency
Mark 4:35-41. On that day, when evening had come, He told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took Him along since He was already in the boat. And other boats were with Him. A fierce wind storm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, “Teacher, Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the sea. “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then He said to them, “Why are you fearful? Do you have little faith?” And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
Big Storm
I wouldn’t have been happy to have gotten caught out on the Gulf of Mexico today as this storm came up. Yet, there they were out in the middle of the sea-and it appears other boats were surrounding them, too- when the wind and the waves assaulted their boat. They didn’t miss the fierceness of the weather disturbance. Big storms are hard to miss; we definitely took quick notice this morning as the howling wind announced its arrival and began knocking over long lines of trash cans as if they were dominos along our street. It’s hard to miss the storm blowing in, and all too often we get fearful of the storm and what will happen to us through it.
It wasn’t the storm
Yes, it was a big storm out there on the sea. Yes, every one of the men on the boat were afraid as the sea waters crashed into their boat bringing with it a very real threat to their lives. They were afraid. They had an emergency. BUT they missed the point. It wasn’t the storm that caused their problem. It was how they responded to it; their reaction caused a storm much bigger than their otherwise perceived threat. (Oh dear, how convicting is that statement, Tamara?).
They missed the boat
(Pun intended!)
Their reaction to the storm caused their emergency, not the storm itself. Friends, what’s your storm? Those seeds of disarray you plant in your heart, those are the secrets women just like you tell themselves all the time. We need more women who look at their friend, who speak lovingly to a stranger, who are brave enough to look in the mirror, face their storms and ask: Where is Jesus? This is not a hypothetical question. Where is Jesus, Friend?
Storms Imagined
Storms in life are inevitable. IF you’ve somehow escaped rough and threatening seas in life, keep living, they’re coming. Or, maybe you’re like me, and you can make up your own storms with just your imagination. I can’t count how many real-life catastrophes I’ve gone through with my family over the years. Catastrophes that came complete with anxiety, fear, a deeply sunken heart and sick stomach. Yet, they were imagined. Thought up in my own mind and never, thank the Lord, realized. None of that stopped my reaction to them, though. The Lord gives us strong direction for these imaginations that cause us to disobey what we know is true and to stray from who He is in our lives.
Taking every thought captive
2 Corinthians 10: 3For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. 4 The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We tear down arguments and everypresumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.
The battle of our minds
From Blueletterbible.com (highly recommend!), we read more about verse 5, in particular:
e. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ: To battle against this carnal way of thinking and doing, our thoughts must be brought captive and made obedient to Jesus.
i. When we start to think in this carnal way, we must stop our thoughts, take dominion over them in Jesus, and not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)
ii. Paul’s first application is towards the carnal, worldly thinking of the Corinthian Christians that made them despise Paul and his “weakness,” doubting his apostolic credentials. But Paul’s principle has a much broader application. We are not helpless victims or recipients of our thoughts. We can choose to stop our thoughts and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Thoughts of lust, thoughts of anger, thoughts of fear, thoughts of greed, bitter thoughts, evil thoughts – they are part of every thought that may be and must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Spiritual War needs Spiritual Weapons
On the boat and in our minds, storms imagined unfold a chain reaction of crazy thoughts and fears of what ifs and impossible outcomes. These are not our storms. These are storms that Jesus isn’t going to calm by changing our circumstances, but rather they are the tempest in our hearts that He can, will, and wants to soothe with His peace, the only real peace we will ever know. What storm is stirring in your mind? We fight flesh and blood with physical weapons, but they don’t work on spiritual warfare. Since we do not fight against flesh & blood, in the same way, our weapons need to be those fit for a spiritual battle.
Feared by demonic powers
Our spiritual weapons are scorned by the world but feared by demonic powers. When we fight with true spiritual weapons, then no principality or power can stand against us. “As the spittle that comes out of a man’s mouth slayeth serpents, so doth that which proceedeth out of the mouths of God’s faithful ministers quell and kill evil imaginations, carnal reasonings, which are the legion of domestic devils, that hold near intelligence with the old serpent.” (John Trapp)
Storms Realized
Then, as I said before, if you’ve lived long enough even things you couldn’t imagine turn about and stand-off with you, face to face. They become your storms realized. These storms rock our boats in ways we’d never choose. Oh, Friends, the storms I’ve been through in my lifetime! Some are too scary to revisit with even just the ghosts of words, others peek their heads in every now and again to see if, really, I’ve been able to scale their threats and keep on moving forward. Babies. I often wonder if there is a special place in heaven for the babies I’ve lost, and for those of so many friends who have also mourned likewise. Is there somewhere waiting, maybe along the river of life, for the millions of babies America has willfully-even in celebration-chosen to kill through abortion? I do not have the answer.
Too much to recount
It is just too much to recount. Here, I started to list the very real ways myself, friends, family and strangers who’ve crossed my ministry journey’s path have all suffered, but I just can’t give space to each of them right here. It’s not because they’re not very real and even more hurtful-I see your pain, truly! I hope and pray you can hear my heart right now. I don’t in any way want to sound as if I’m dismissing or diminishing in any way your turmoil. I’m not smoothing over anyone’s reality, but I am trying to be sensitive to others and be careful not to give anyone’s mind room to explode in imaginations that crumble them with fears they’d never think about otherwise. Since I can’t, due to time and white space limits, take each one’s trial from incept to current, I dare not be a dumping ground of things the evil one would then use to trouble the hearts of my sisters who are listening. At the same time, I want to encourage those of you who are struggling in their own “too much” right now.
When We are Weak
Sisters in Christ, my friends, women just like you struggle just like you are. It’s a lie from the pit of hell that you are alone in the pain you feel down in that valley. You are not alone, God promises to never leave us, and even more tangible in the flesh, you are not alone-there are other women who love the Lord and still know that very pain you’re suffering. I promise! After more than 30 years of living and listening to other women’s life stories, I am sure of it; you are not alone. Share your heart with someone who is safe-message or email me and I promise to listen and pray with you-but don’t allow yourself to be penned up thinking no one will understand. Someone will and feels just the same as you. Abuse, past abortions or any mistake you can’t take back, self-harm because you need to cry and feel as if there’s no one to turn to, addiction that is so secret you even surprise yourself some days, infertility, marriage problems that leave you on the brink of divorce, prodigal children, not wanting to be a better mom or wife because of any one or many of those intruding thoughts not yet taken captive to the obedience of Christ, losses that leave you seemingly hopeless, trudging through depression not even wanting to keep on keeping on, full time care of someone else either from the beginning of their life or suddenly with a tragic accident or diagnosis, death’s void or living’s fight that is just too much…so many avenues to the pain that overwhelms us in life.
We we can NOT, but HE CAN!
All these pains (and more) leave us weak beyond hope our flesh can muster. BUT, let me remind you…it’s in our weakness we know God more. It is there that He grows us in faithfulness to who He is. It is when we have no hope, no strength and even no care that He shows us that He, our God, is mighty and able; He is loving and full of grace and compassion. We we can NOT, but HE CAN! When we are weak and without strength to DO, we realize God IS who He says He is. I hope you’ll pop over on another post and read more about God in our weakness.
WEAKNESS ISN’T THE END OF LIFE
Weakness isn’t the end of life, it is an invitation and doorway to the very strength and power you need.
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Real or Imagined: Jesus is still the answer
The source of our struggle really does matter. Are we trying to awaken Jesus because our imaginations have triggered an emergency in our mind? Like the men on the boat who loved and followed Jesus, do we scream out to the Lord wondering what He’s doing as the waves come crashing in taking our minds deceptively away from the truth we know? We need to take those thoughts and turn them back to the authenticity of the Lord. Jesus was asleep, that is true. But He wasn’t struggling in his sleep. unaware of their surrounding storm. He was asleep and comfortable, His head was lying softly on a pillow…there was no emergency aside from the way they each reacted to their self-proclaimed, self-inflicted demise. We can learn something from these boat dwellers: when we’re with the Lord, the storms in life need not unravel us. We should, instead, remember the Lord is there with us, and He is in control of even the biggest disturbances the come upon us. He does care.
Jesus was in the back of the boat with his head on a pillow, and he was asleep. His disciples woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown?”
Mark 4:38
The Real Hard Stuff
Well, the real hard stuff is sort of a misnomer, spiritual warfare, getting control of our mindset and attitude IS hard stuff, to be sure. But, this hard stuff is in contrast to those things. This real hard stuff is the things that happen in our lives, the things we have no control over.
The deepest valley
The diagnosis, the death, the detriment, all the disasters that really do try to kill us in a lot of ways; these are hard things. They have something in common with the broken and disillusioned thoughts we allow to take us astray. Their cause is different, their pain and perplexity is familiar, and their answer, too, is Jesus. When we find ourselves in the deepest valley, darkness looming on every side, when we have no control or choices to make that will pull us up out of the muck, we have Jesus. We have hope. We have the promise that will allow us to breathe one more breath, take one more step and think one more time that we will make it through…through-if we just lean into the Lord. When we have Jesus, we have exactly what we need; He’s not going to sleep through our crisis and leave us alone. Even if He doesn’t calm the storm around us in the moment, as He did for His men that stormy night, He will go with us and He will get us through it. In the mix, we will become more like Jesus, our faith will grow, and we will know that He is who He tells us He is. The valley is dark. Death’s shadow looms, and it is scary. But be encouraged, no shadow is possible in the absence of light. I know it’s scary to walk through life’s trials, but please remember these truths: God is with you, He will comfort you. You have no reason to fear…and you aren’t stuck; keep on walking.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23: 4
So much to think about, so much TRUTH to meditate on. So much hope to live your life in today, and each new day the Lord gives you! Silence the lies you’ve been listening to, quiet your heart in God’s Word, and believe He is God, He is for you, He has a purpose in your pain, and He is faithful. Be encouraged, Friends. God is at work and He is good.
