When you grow up in the Cincinnati Tri-State area, you get used to unpredictable weather. It can be sunny/70 degrees one day and rainy/40 degrees the next. You get used to the flood watches and tornado warnings coming across your phone or TV. They are just a part of living in the midwest. But if you’re my friend from Southern California, those warnings can be unnerving and bring on a lot of anxiety. I’ll never forget when Mary, a new friend from San Diego, experienced her first tornado warning in the Tri-State. She was in her car on a winding Indiana road when the tornado warning came across her car radio. She started to become anxious and panicked. She immediately pulled over to the side of the road and called me screaming, “What do I do?”
Let’s face it, I would have probably reacted the same way, if I were in Southern California during an earthquake or in Hawaii during a Tsunami warning. We can NEVER be prepared for every storm we will face in life. All of us, sometime or another, will face a storm in life that will catch us off guard and try to knock us off our feet.
That was even true for Jesus’ disciples. The Bible tells of a time when they were in a boat with Jesus and began to panic when a storm suddenly blew in and began pounding their boat while out on the Sea of Galilee. Many of these men were even expert fishermen but yet were caught off guard at the sudden squall that beat against their boat nearly swamping it. (Mark 4:35-41)
Ever felt like that before? Ever felt like your boat was being swamped by the storm raging around you? I’ve seen your recent Facebook posts. I’ve seen your Instagram feed. In this time of uncertainty, we are all trying to wrestle with this raging yet invisible storm of COVID-19. I’ll admit I’ve had my moments where the “what ifs” crept in my mind. I have never experienced a storm like this in my lifetime, and my guess is neither have you. So it’s only natural to have some fear and anxiety about what’s going on in our world today. I’d have to check your pulse if you haven’t. But I don’t want to stay there, do you? I don’t want my fear to win. I don’t want my anxious thoughts to keep me from living the life God wants me to live and doing what he wants me to do. What if He has prepared and equipped us for “such a time as this”?
I’ve spent the last couple weeks really praying and meditating over this invisible storm our world is currently fighting against. I have tried to listen more than I speak, asking God to give me peace and direction through His Word. And WOW, the Lord has delivered! I can’t explain it any other way but that His Word has nestled into my heart and mind and replaced all those anxious thoughts. His Word has come alive like never before. The Bible is filled with words that always bring me peace, but I wanted to share just a couple that have really taken away those anxious thoughts in the middle of this raging storm.
THIS BATTLE IS HIS - No doubt God is up to something big with COVID-19. He has got the world’s attention for a reason, and I trust in Him. I trust in His timing and His ways through this storm. The battle is the Lord’s and He will be victorious! I’m just His foot soldier trying to follow His marching orders.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. (Psalm 18:2)
Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, invincible in battle. (Psalm 24:8)
OUR JOB IS TO STAY FOCUSED ON THE MISSION - We can’t let our minds camp out on those anxious thoughts for very long. I don’t know about you, but they suck the life out of me. That fear brings chaos into my world where there doesn’t have to be chaos. Those anxious thoughts distract me from my mission to bring God glory through it all. You and I have got to quickly take all of that captive and refocus our eyes back on the Lord. That is when He will fight our battles for us.
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
HE’S OUR ANCHOR IN THE STORM - There is nothing that can blow us off course when Jesus Christ is the anchor for our soul. That brings me great peace when the storm is raging. What is the anchor keeping you firm and secure through this storm?
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:19).
EVERYTHING ELSE IS SINKING SAND - At Rock Solid Families, we have built an entire ministry on the Rock Solid Foundation of Jesus Christ. We have sat with countless individuals and couples who have put their trust in something that has failed them. They come to us feeling stuck and sometimes even hopeless not knowing where to turn or what to do next. Whether it be a spouse, a job, or our health….it all can be taken from us in a blink of an eye. None of those things make a very strong foundation to build our lives on. Jesus tried to share this truth in his parable of the wise and foolish builders. (Matthew 7:24-27) Don’t give your circumstances the power to dictate your peace. You can decide today what you’re going to build your life on. Is it your job? Is it your health? Is it your net worth? As we have found in the middle of this crisis, all of those things can disappear in an instant. And then what?
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”(Matthew 7:24-27)
HE’S WAITING FOR US - In the story I mentioned before in Luke 4, it was only when the disciples cried out to Jesus that He calmed the storm. I’m not saying that one simple prayer is going to end COVID-19, but I am saying that the Lord is waiting for us to reach out to Him. He sees the storm, and He’s in control. He knows what lies ahead, but He’s waiting for us to trust him. We can be in the middle of a raging storm like COVID-19 and still find comfort, strength, and peace in the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Use these difficult days as weights that exercise and strengthen your faith muscles.
I don’t know where you’re at right now, but that’s how I have found peace in the middle of this storm. It’s not because I know what tomorrow brings and how all this ends, but because I know HE is the Rock I cling to in the middle of this storm. He is the unshakable foundation that can’t be moved or knocked down even by the biggest waves. Jesus Christ is what brings me peace, not my circumstances. If you don’t know this peace that calms even the wildest storm, call me. I’d love to walk alongside you and introduce you to Him. His name is Jesus, and He’s been waiting for you.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. (Psalm 107:28-29)
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-38)