The Storms of Life

Last night we received a wonderful message at church. The topic was 'Hearing from God and how to be led by the Spirit'. The teacher brought up something that I had never considered before. She asked a question: Why do we need to be led by the Spirit...? -And the answer was because of the 'storms' of life.

She cited three biblical examples of ways believers encounter storms and the various ways we are able to escape those storms... I was taken by surprise by this because I had not considered multiple ways or reasons that one may encounter storms.

I was somewhat familiar with two of the three references given, but had never interpreted them the way our teacher did last night, nor would I have thought to do a comparison of the three.

The first example was from Jonah. Everyone is probably familiar with the story of Jonah... God asked him to preach in the city of Nineva but at first Jonah resisted and took a cruise in the exact opposite direction of Nineva. He was willfully disobedient. And I believe this is the number one reason that brings on most Storms of Life. (At least that's been the case in my own life...) Anyway, God caused a great storm on the sea and it was feared that the boat would be lost. Jonah was thrown overboard by the crew and was swallowed up by a fish. Meanwhile, he had repented while spending three days in the belly of the fish, and the fish spit him up off the coast of guess where...? Nineva.

So Jonah got in trouble because of his own disobedience but was delivered because he repented. At the end of the chapter 3 the city of Nineva was also delivered because it repented and fasted and prayed for forgiveness.

The second example was taken from Mark 4:35-41, the story of Jesus Calming the Sea. In that story Jesus asked the disciples to go with Him in a boat to the other side of a body of water. They agreed and went with Him. About halfway into the crossing a great storm came up and threatened to overturn the boat. The disciples were terrified but Jesus commanded the sea to 'Be Still' and it was. The disciples were in perfect obedience when the storm attacked.

In spite of doing what they were supposed to do they encountred a storm. They were ultimately delivered by a command of Faith. This shows that a person can get into a storm even when they are obediently following Christ. The method of escape in this case was a command of faith by Jesus.

The third example cited was taken from Acts 27. I was not as familiar with this story as the other two stories but Paul l got into a storm because of the disobedience of others but everyone ends up being delivered though faith and patience.

It seems that in my own life most of the storms that I have faced have stemmed from my own disobedience. That's why I did not recognize the other methods of storm origin as quickly.

The point of all this is that no matter who you are, everyone faces storms, both the disobedient and the obedient. And God always provides an escape. 1 Cor 10:13 The key to success in discerning the method of escape God provides is being able to hear and correctly interpret the voice of the Holy Spirit.