Have you found yourself amid a storm this week? Were you sailing along enjoying the blue skies and sunshine in pleasant waters, your sail set in a particular direction, when suddenly everything changed? The storms of life can evoke varying emotions from disappointment, discouragement or fear etc. At these times we do well to remember that our God is not a God of discouragement. Fear is not of God, it is the devil’s territory. As for disappointment, whatever befalls us in life, our Lord Jesus is not a disappointment and if I listen for His whispers, I will hear His words of comfort: “All is well! This storm will pass.” As I yield to Him in the storm I lose myself in His love, and miracle of miracles….I am found in Him! He is the Master of the storm and I can dwell safely with Him in the “secret place of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty”, (Psalm 91:1).

The storms of life are where we grow and mature in the Lord……or not! Our choice rules our growth. It is an amazing fact that I can limit the Unlimited One, by my choices! Joshua 24:15 exhorts us: “….choose you this day whom you will serve…” Jesus declared, Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters…” When I learn to worship the Lord IN the storm, I find His perfect peace, which bypasses my understanding and is independent of my circumstances. His word becomes truth to me because Jesus is the Living Word alive in me in His resurrection power: Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee.”

Consider the last verse of the beautiful, old hymn: “Here is love, vast as the ocean”:

In Thy truth Thou dost direct me by Thy Spirit through Thy Word,
And Thy grace my need is meeting as I trust in Thee, my Lord.
All Thy fullness Thou art pouring in Thy love and power in me,
Without measure, full and boundless, as I yield myself to Thee.

It’s all in the yielding! Back to choice! In the first line of the above verse, we are reminded of the truth the Lord reveals to us. We are all in measure, none of us have walked in all the fullness of God, only the Lord Jesus. As God reveals His truth to me, I then have to walk in it. What I see in the light, I have to take it into the workshop of the school of life and allow the Holy Spirit to work it IN me. Humility is always key. If I consistently refuse to walk in revealed truth then it becomes darkness to me and I lose my way, (John 12:35). God only holds me accountable for the truth He has revealed to me. As I embrace and walk in it, He will reveal more truth and light. Jesus is the full embodiment of all truth and light. Indeed! They are some of His names.

We are all in measure, but God is seeking to press us out of measure, into fullness, our birthright.
Ephesians 4:13-15 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”

My Heavenly Father loves me: unconditionally, indisputably, demonstrated in John 3:16. Prayer: My Father, help me not to tread roughshod over this holy ground. Strengthen me to make you Lord in every situation and see life through Your eyes, embracing Your direction, especially when You require the surrender of my will. Let me learn obedience from our Pattern Man, Jesus Christ and echo those timeless words, “Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done.” Luke 22:42