.png)
Jesus Calms the Storm 23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” --- Matthew 8:23-27
Paul speaks of a peace that surpasses all understanding but how many of us are truly experiencing it in our lives? Throughout the storms of life, are we drowning in stress and worry? Or can we say that we are fully resting in God, knowing that He is in control of every situation?
As I was sitting in the barbershop, I overheard someone ask, "Are you guys prepared for the hurricane?"
This was the first time I had even heard that a hurricane was coming since I don't watch the news. I could see the panic and frustration in their voices as the barbers and other clients discussed the coming storm. I thought to myself Wow. There's so much panic and fear when your trust isn't in God. As I was driving back to my house from the barbershop, I realized what a great opportunity this was for God to show Himself strong through the lives of people who believe and trust in Him.
Over the next few days, everyone in the neighborhood was boarding their houses up in preparation for the storm that had picked up to a Category 5 hurricane just before it hit land. I just stood back and observed everything going on around me.
I have a daily routine of waking up at 5am to pray. The morning before the storm arrived, I woke up at my usual time to pray and as I was praying, God showed me that I was supposed to take communion in front of the house and anoint and pray over each window. So later that morning, my wife and I walked around the outside of the house several times praying for God's protection over our house as well as every house on our street. On our final round, we stopped and took communion at the front door. We went inside and I anointed and prayed over each window of the house, about 24 in total. Then we went about our day.
As the day went on, I noticed that the wind was picking up but I didn't give it much thought until I received a call from my little cousin.
"Mike, are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I replied.
"Because, you're in the eye of the storm." She said.
Once she told me this I could feel the stress creeping in, so I immediately went upstairs and began to worship and pray. Our power eventually went out around 8pm, which was hours later than it did in the other neighborhoods around us, so I used my Bluetooth speaker to continue playing worship music as we slept. As the night progressed, the winds continued to get stronger. The louder the storm was, the higher I turned up the volume so that the sound of the storm was drowned out by the sound of worship. In the middle of the night, in the midst of a raging storm, I was filled with peace.
We woke up the next morning and not a single window was out of place. There wasn't even one scratch! This was amazing in itself as the winds had picked up to over 100mph throughout the storm and our entire downstairs were mostly glass windows. No trees had fallen in our yard either and we had several large trees leaning over multiple sides of the house. The worst thing that had happened were some minor branches had fallen in the yard and there were leaves everywhere.
At first I thought it might be a coincidence because as I looked down our street, all the other houses were untouched as well. It was like the storm had skipped over us. So I decided to go for a ride around the neighborhood to investigate. As soon as I hit the next street, it was complete chaos. Trees had been rooted up, fallen on houses, cars, garages. Power lines were down in the middle of the street. There was no doubt that a storm had passed through.
That was when I realized, we have a Father that controls the wind and the rain, and He gave me peace during the hurricane.
No storm is too big for God, physical or figurative. Put your trust in Him and He will see you through no matter what you're going through.
"7 casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. - 1 Peter 5:7