Scripture I'm reflecting on: Acts 27:15
"The sailors couldn't turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale"
Most of us find having faith in God, and believing God is watching over and guiding our lives, to be a pretty easy thing to do when things are going well. But how about when they aren't? Do we find it as easy when we are stuck in dark times, stuck in a "storm" so to speak?
Reflection:
I find myself coming back to a common theme almost everytime I write lately; which is encouraging myself and all of us to find ways to maintain our faith, continue living the proper Christian life, in all times of our lives, good and bad. Everyone will experience highs and lows in their life. Some may experience more highs then others, some more lows; and this is often out of our control. But what is in our control is staying strong in our faith, most notably in the bad times, when we are "stuck in a storm". Truly believing God is in control when we are struggling with something, just the same as when we are thriving, is something that is always a challenging task.
No where in the Bible does God promise to prevent all difficulties in our lives. But there are promises that God will use the difficulties in our lives as stepping stones to greater things in our lives... when we are faithful to Him. God doesn't put things in our lives that we cannot overcome, that we cannot handle, that would close the path He has for us. God wouldn't put us in a financial situation that would completely prevent our ultimate destiny. God wouldn't put tragedy in our lives if we were incapable of overcoming the dark times and contributing something great to His kingdom.
I catch myself doing little things when I've had a bad day that push me away from God. My prayers are shorter. My reading gets cut off a few pages earlier than usual. I heard someone say once that when you had a bad day, to pray for the happiness of others who may have experienced a similar day. Finding something like this to keep us faithful, to show God we believe in Him, "to give up the reigns and let him lead us out of the storm", are crucial tools to getting us through the low points in our life.
Final Thought:
I remember as a kid always wondering why, when it was windy, I would see certain birds just floating against the wind. Not flying, not even moving anywhere really, just opening their wings and staying in the same general area. I later looked this up and found out that these birds, instead of fighting against a menacing wind to get somewhere, could just open up their wings and let the wind raise them up until eventually they were above the storm. I am reminded of this as I write this as an analogy to what we need to do in our bad times, when we are "fighting a storm." There's no point in fighting with God, asking "why is this happening" or "how do i fix this." We just need to ride out the storm, and believe that God has placed this difficulty in our lives in order to push us closer to the great destiny He has planned for us. I can say from experience, that by remembering and believing that God is in control during a bad day,
The Bible says that God hardened pharoah's heart all the times Moses went to plead his case. Instead of making things easy for Moses, God presented him with difficulty, that he ultimately used to obtain a great and heavenly result. God will do the same for us, as long as we do not fight against him and keep our faith.
I am at a point in my life where I am starting to see God turn some of the low points from earler in my life, low points that I never could have imagined would turn into anything good, into stepping stones for my life now. Always know that no matter how low things are right now, that God knows what He is doing, and will use that difficulty in your life to produce something great for you if you keep the faith in Him. God is in control of the storm. Sometimes we just have to let him steer our ship, our life, and have faith that He is with us, in the best and worst of times.
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