THE WAYS

of

GOD

FINDING PURPOSE

THROUGH YOUR PAIN

Cherie Hill

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Other Bestsellers by Cherie Hill

WAITING on GOD

Hope Being Gone

BE STILL

(Let Jesus Calm Your Storms)

empty.

(Living Full of Faith When Life Drains You Dry)

Beginning at The End

(Finding God When Your World Falls Apart)

FAITH Under Construction

© 2012 by Cherie Hill

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

© Cover Image: image copyright robert_s, used under license from Shutterstock.com.

Scripture quotations marked "The Amplified Bible" (AMP) or "The Amplified New Testament" are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation and The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, Wheaton: Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV®) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked "NLT" are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from The New King James Version / Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., Copyright © 1982. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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As for God, his way is perfect.

Psalm 18:30 (NIV)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Can God Be Trusted?

Chapter 2: Work In Progress

Chapter 3: Hope Being Gone

Chapter 4: Perfect Peace

Bonus Features:

BE STILL

(Let Jesus Calm Your Storms)

empty.

(Living Full of Faith When Life Drains You Dry)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Chapter 1:

Can God Be Trusted?

Life has taken some unexpected turns. You’ve either decided to take detours in your life, or you’ve been forced into them . . . only to find yourself at a dead end. The twists and turns have distorted your sense of direction and you feel like you’re spinning out of control. You’ve daily been striving to take the “high” road, but without warning you find yourself shoved off the road altogether, and you’ve landed into a ditch (the “valley”).

It appears you’re in the middle of nowhere. And when you need help the most . . . there’s not a soul in sight. If faith is supposed to be an insurance policy against the tragedies in life, it isn’t paying off.

In a moment of solemn realization, you’re surprised you’ve survived thus far; but in times like these, there have been moments when you wish you hadn’t. The truth is, you’re calling out to God, but He doesn’t seem to be answering. Desperation is draining you and you’re exhausted from the “fight of faith.” Doubt seems to be getting the best of you.

If God is at work, you can’t see it. If God really loves you, you can’t feel it. And if He doesn’t show up in your circumstances, it’s the end of the road. As the reality of the situation sets in, you can’t help but wonder if God really cares? You reason: He could have been there and He wasn’t. He could have done something and He didn’t. Looking back, your prayers even seem like cruel jokes . . . when you hoped for good, evil came; when you looked for light, darkness came flooding in.

Yet, when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light,

then came darkness.

The churning inside me never stops;

days of suffering confront me.

(Job 30:26-27 NIV)

You realize that what you’ve been wrestling with aren’t simple matters of faith, but feelings of abandonment and betrayal by a God who claims to love you. Your soul begins to cry out:

How long, O Lord, must I call for help?

But you do not listen!

I cry, but you do not come to save.

(Habakkuk 1:2 NLT)

As if things couldn’t get worse, God remains silent and the emptiness intensifies. Why does God allow pain and suffering? C.S. Lewis so powerfully said,

“God whispers to us in our pleasures,

speaks to us in our conscience,

but shouts in our pains:

It is His megaphone

to rouse a deaf world.”

Albeit true, we just wish God wouldn’t shout so loud! Are we really that deaf? Evidently so:

They have ears but cannot hear.

(Psalm 115:6 NLT)

Yet, as He shouts at us, why can’t we see Him? Where is He when we need Him? He calls to us through the megaphone of pain, but when we come running, we can’t find Him!

But if I go east, he is not there;

if I go west, I do not find him.

When he is at work in the north,

I do not see him;

when he turns south,

I catch no glimpse of him.

(Job 23:8-9 NIV)

Doubt steps into the picture once again, and the questions begin to spiral out of control, “Does He know what we’re going through? Does He understand our desperation?” Through the silence, there’s a whisper in our spirit, and briefly we recall:

Even though Jesus was God’s Son,

he learned obedience from

the things he suffered.

(Hebrews 5:8 NLT)

For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)

Our spirit is calmed as we realize that a deep desire is satisfied: We not only want a God who knows all about our pain, we want a God who shares in it.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. (Isaiah 53:3 NIV)

Although we might argue that our situation is as painful as enduring the Cross, our argument just simply doesn’t hold water. Our blood and water have not been spilled out, literally. As we humble ourselves at the foot of the Cross, in a brief moment of calm, we can’t help but wonder, “Does God know something I don’t? Is it possible . . . that things look different from His perspective and He knows the bigger picture? Is it feasible that in my pain and suffering, He IS working all things for good and I just can’t see it?” Maybe, just maybe, God knows what He’s doing. In a moment of reckoning, we realize:

“God allows in His wisdom

what He could easily

prevent in His power.”

—Graham Cooke

Even though that revelation is thought provoking and fairly “faith stretching” . . . knowing that God loves us and works “all things for good,” in the end, just doesn’t seem to be enough. The begging question within our soul is, “Can God be trusted?” As we ponder the answer, we recall that God’s ways are higher.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9 NLT)

We’re convinced that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts—as hard as we try, we can’t figure God out. And His ways may be higher, but they certainly don’t seem better. We made plans for our lives, but He’s determining our steps and taking us places we never wanted to go.

We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. (Proverbs 16:9 NLT)

We find ourselves taking the very next step in front of us, only to find our feet knocked out from under us. How can we trust a God that is constantly bringing us to our knees in helpless desperation? We decide to take the journey of life with Him and He brings us to the edge of a cliff. We find ourselves at the edge, consumed with fear, and God seems to push us right off; we’re helpless and hopeless and free falling into the abyss of darkness. What kind of loving God does this? Evidently, One that’s teaching us to trust Him.

Indeed these are the mere edges

of His ways,

and how small a whisper

we hear of Him!

(Job 16:14 NKJV)

The word “trust” is an interesting word. Its root is from the word that means “to lie face down on the ground.” With that in mind, we’re starting to get the picture . . . that’s why we’ve fallen and are unable to get up. It’s all about trust. And God is bringing us to a place where faith is no longer an option or a luxury—it’s a necessity.

Don’t for a second believe that trust is a passive state of attitude and mind. Trust is a dynamic, vital act of the soul by which we choose to take hold of the Promises of God and cling to them, despite any adversity that seeks to overwhelm us. In our moment of reckoning, as difficult as it is, our suffering Savior versed words that cause our faith to deplete even more, as we realize we don’t have the faith that willingly, gladly, and trustingly drinks of the cup of suffering that God has handed us:

Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me? (John 18:11 NLT)

Though it’s not what we want to hear, Jesus exemplifies how we are to trust God. Surrendering everything to God is the highest form of faith, especially when it includes suffering.

“This was a greater thing to say and do than calm the seas or raise the dead. Prophets and apostles could work wondrous miracles, but they could not always do and suffer the will of God. To do and suffer God’s will is still the highest form of faith, the most sublime Christian achievement. To have the bright aspirations of a younger life forever blasted; to bear a daily burden never congenial and to see no relief; to be pinched by poverty when you only desire a competency for the good and comfort of loved ones; to be fettered by some incurable physical disability; to be stripped bare of loved ones until you stand alone to meet the shocks of life—to be able to say in such a school of discipline, ‘Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering my Father has given me?’—this is faith at its highest and spiritual success at the crowning point. Great faith is exhibited not so much in ability to do as to suffer. —Dr. Charles Parkhurst

We want to trust, we want to have faith that moves mountains, but we need to be sure that God will not allow anything to thwart His glory. We need to be assured that nothing will keep Him from giving us “good” things in life. We need to know that He’s “in charge”—that nothing happens outside of His awareness. We need to be assured that no one and nothing can act outside of God’s sovereign will or against it. Once again, we hear His voice whispering to our troubled minds:

“I am God, there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10 NIV)

To us, our situation looks hopeless, but the place of hopelessness is where God can show Himself powerfully in our lives. What we find, as we wait on God to reveal His will, is that often times He only reveals Himself.

In our continued suffering, our question of “Where is God when I’m hurting?” turns to a question like, “Where is God when it doesn’t stop?” And what we find is that God is at work in our lives . . . He never sleeps or slumbers (see Psalm 121:4) . . . through our hopelessness, He’s drawing us near, preparing us to make a decision. Will we trust Him? Will we take Him at His Word?

In times of desperation, we will do one of two things: Run from God or run to Him. It’s our choice. And if we’ll trust Him while we’re upon our knees, He will take us through a journey of faith that allows us to fully grasp how Romans 8:28 reads into our life:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

In job layoffs,

God works for the good.

In divorce,

God works for the good.

In pain and suffering,

God works for the good.

In broken relationships,

God works for the good.

In sickness,

God works for the good.

In addictions,

God works for the good.

In loss and grief,

God works for the good.

In your hour of need, God is going to show you that He is all you need. He’s the Redeemer. It may be “Saturday,” but God is a God of “Sundays”—resurrection days. When you’re trusting in God, you’re trusting in the power that raises the dead . . . He may be only moments from rolling your stone away. He wants us to trust Him on Saturday . . . He’s looking for our faith.

The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are committed to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV)

Now, it may not “look” like Sunday is coming . . . trusting God is never easy, but it makes all things possible. You see, God loves to do the impossible, so if you’re at the edge, upon your knees, in desperation, God’s got you right where He wants you. He’s brought you to this very place. (Unfortunately, some of us just have farther to go to get there.)

He led the Israelites to the Red Sea—He’s led you to yours. God allowed Daniel to be thrown into a den of lions to be devoured—He’s done the same with you. He gave David the opportunity to defeat a giant—He’s giving you the chance as well. He permitted Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego to step into a fiery furnace, but He met them there . . .  He’ll meet you in your furnace of affliction. He gave Peter the opportunity to walk on water—He’s calling you upon it too. But, you’ll have to trust Him. That’s what He’s after . . . your trust in Him. He’s after your heart . . . the one that’s breaking. And He needs you to make a decision . . . sometimes many times a day, hour, or minute—to trust Him. It’s your choice . . . He leaves the decision to you. Want to see His track record? Check out the Old and New Testament. Not a SINGLE person regretted trusting God . . . but the whole Bible is filled with the sorrows of those who decided not to.

Trusting God is only possible if you make a decision—a decision to “take His Word for it.” God’s Word is His promises to you . . . and you can bet your life on every single one of them.

Anyone who trusts in him will not be put to shame. (Romans 10:11 NIV)

You can make the decision to simply “trust” God and then watch Him prove Himself faithful, or He’ll bring you to a place of “needing” to trust Him. And most of the time, the walk of faith entails both ways. At the end of all hope, when you’re being tested beyond measure, when you are no longer able to trust anyone BUT God . . . there’s a way of escape, but it isn’t the way you probably envisioned.

The temptations in your life are not different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT)

The way out! That’s what we’re hoping for. But God’s ways aren’t our ways. He’s taking us a different route . . . right through the valley of adversity. He’s bringing us to the end of our will, so that we will embrace His. And unexpectedly, we get a glimpse of just one of the ways of God. He brings us into brokenness, so that He can make us whole.

Indeed in our hearts we felt

the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might

not rely on ourselves,

but on God who raises the dead.

(2 Corinthians 1:9 NIV)

What we find, at the point of no return, is that the only way out is through . . . and the only way through is by trusting God. As if life were not difficult enough, that somber revelation is not in the least bit encouraging. In fact, on the surface of it, that means things will probably get worse. Can we really trust God when adversity consumes our life with pain? Does He really come to the rescue of those who seek Him? Does He, as His Word says, deliver those who call upon Him in the day of trouble? (see Psalm 50:15)

You’re not the first to ask such pertinent questions in the matters of faith, and you won’t be the last. Do these words seem eerily familiar at all? :

When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I pray, with hands lifted toward heaven, pleading. There can be no joy for me until he acts. I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed to even pray! I think of the good old days, long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and think about the difference now. Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again show me favor? Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be kind? Has He slammed the door on his compassion? And I said, ‘This is my fate, that the blessings of the Most High have changed to hatred.’ (Psalm 77:2-10 NLT)

As we struggle in our faith, doubt steps into the conversation and asks the begging question, “Can God be trusted?” . . . He’s glad you asked.

IT’S A CHOICE

You need to make a choice—God’s way or your way. And God has spoken, “As for God, his way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30 NIV).

You see, your life is your vote  . . . you’re either for Him or against Him (see Luke 11:12). You either believe Him or you don’t. You either live your life trusting Him or you call Him a liar. Though that’s a rather harsh statement, it’s reality. You must cast your vote . . . everyone must—believers and unbelievers alike. Each and every day, we cast our vote.

God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19 NIV)

It’s not about believing IN Him . . . even demons believe.

You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (James 2:19 NIV)

Believing God is a different matter altogether. It’s trusting God. It’s having faith in who He says He is through His Word. Just as faith comes from hearing the Word of God (see Romans 10:17), trust is based upon our faith . . . it’s stepping out in faith and being assured that God is true to His Word. According to Nicholas Wolterstorff,

“Faith is the footbridge that you don’t know will hold you up over the chasm until you’re forced to walk out onto it.”

The truth is, in moments of doubt, all we need to do is stop and take a deep breath . . . look around us, and quite frankly, observe the obvious.

The evidence that God exists is so overwhelming that it is simply senseless to spend any amount of time thinking otherwise.

Francis Chan urges us to “stop and think”:

“Right now you’re standing on this giant ball that’s spinning at a thousand miles an hour! And while it’s spinning, it’s flying around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour! That’s crazy!”

If God can keep the universe in motion, surely we can trust Him with our lives. Yet we doubt the One who placed each star in the sky.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that

you are mindful of them,

human beings that

you care for them?

(Psalm 8:3-4 NIV)

God is a God of details . . . and He knows every detail of your life. Never doubt that He does.

And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. (Luke 12:7 NLT) (P.S. If you don’t have hairs on your head—God knows that too!)

But doubt comes knocking regularly, doesn’t it?!? Rest assured, God’s Word holds true once more, He uses ALL things for good . . . even doubt.

“Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith.”

—Paul Tournier

Know that it’s “okay” to doubt. If you’re not willing to entertain doubt and let doubt make its case, your faith may never grow and become the footbridge that is needed to cross your chasm.

It’s okay to have doubt in the midst of your faith, but allowing doubt to rule in your life is as John Ortberg puts it in his book, Faith and Doubt, “like jumping off a diving board and trying to put off actually entering into the water.” You put yourself in an impossible situation. Sooner or later, you need to trust that the water is there and jump in. You have to believe something before you doubt anything, so give yourself a break and realize that every saint doubts. Your belief in God is the first step, but it’s in ultimately trusting Him that not only puts you in the water, but causes you to walk upon it.

But, it’s your choice. And not choosing is its own choice. Trusting God is not a decision you make once. It’s a choice that must be made hundreds upon hundreds of times a day. The decision will sometimes be small; at other times, life changing. Either way, the choice comes down to whether or not you believe that God is trustworthy.

Peter had a chance to trust God. (Note: The other Disciples stayed in the boat. Peter took a risk—He chose to trust, even through his doubts.) Jesus called to Peter as He walked upon the water:

“Lord, if it is you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

One thing that stands out in this story is that the Disciples had “gone ahead” of Jesus. We’re not sure if that was by their choice or Jesus’, but we know that we tend to “go ahead” of God from time to time. (Okay, more often than not.) Yet, what’s even more remarkable about this story is that although the Disciples thought they were “ahead” of Him, Jesus came walking to them. It seems we’re NEVER ahead of God. We’re no different than Peter . . . we WANT to believe, but our circumstances get the best of us. The winds of adversity begin to instill fear in our hearts and we take our eyes off Jesus. Trusting in God requires taking risks and trusting in Christ-centered help. Mature faith will never develop in shallow water.

There’s another place where there was a choice that had to do with water . . . it was a healing at a pool. The pool of water had been known to cure people. The waters were said to make the blind to see and the lame to walk, yet there was one man who had been an invalid sitting by the pool for thirty-eight years. (Wow that’s a long time, yet we too sit on this side of faith allowing doubt to get the best of us.) When Jesus saw him, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (A choice had to be made.) What seemed like a ridiculous question revealed the choice God gives us in the obvious situations of life . . . we must “want” His help. The man’s response is even more shocking, as he is before the Son of God . . . making up excuses! (Haven’t we done the same?) “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” (We mock his excuse —“How absurd is that!?!” Yet, our excuses are no better.) Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (Did you catch that? AT ONCE!)

Listen, don’t wait for Jesus to come to you. Go to Him. Don’t expect a “divine” sign from heaven or a “feeling” within your soul before you choose to trust God. Rest assured, in times of hopelessness, those things will never occur. There may not be anyone there to “help you into the healing pool when the water is stirred.” Most often you’re going to have to encourage yourself in the Lord. You’re going to have to “Get up!” and walk forward in faith . . . trusting that God is true to His Word.

David encouraged himself

in the Lord his God.

(1 Samuel 30:6 KJV)

Know that once you take a step of faith, you’ll be met with winds of adversity that instill fear in your heart, they’ll be doubts that try to keep you from taking another step toward God—you’ll come face to face with the enemy, the devil. An old southern preacher once said,

“If you don’t come face to face with the devil sometimes, then you must be going the same direction he is.”

Make sure you’re not moving in the same direction as the devil. Don’t be afraid to face him. If God is for you, who dare be against you (see Romans 8:31)? Know that each obstacle you face is part of the enemy’s strategy, but tools in the hands of God. As hard as it is to accept, God calls the shots. And yes, He allows good as well as bad.

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, Consider: God has made the one as well as the other. (Ecclesiastes 7:14 NIV)

Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad? (Job 2:10 NLT)

The sooner we realize that God is God and we’re not, the better off we’ll be. (His throne isn’t big enough for the two of you.) If we choose to sit upon our own throne, running our own kingdom, He’ll let us. But, He urges us to trust Him. He pleads His case within the Bible and urges us to choose “life”—His way.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV)

God makes it clear: It’s our choice. And the choice is vital. There is nothing more critical than life and death; nothing more desirable on earth than blessings and nothing less desirable than curses. How much easier can the choice be?

To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart. There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. Our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress. God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him. —A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy

The question is, “Will we do it God’s way or our own?” We are all earthen vessels, but whether or not we claim to be the captain of the ship is a vital part of whether we arrive safely at our destination, sink at sea, or end up lost in the vast ocean for eternity.

As the story goes, there was a ship sailing through black water on a black night . . . the seaman on watch saw a light ahead. He reported to the Captain who immediately ordered the following message sent:

“Request that you alter your course 10 degrees south.”

The reply: “Request that you alter your course 10 degrees north.”

The Captain, now angry, sent another message a little more terse than the first: “Request you alter your course 10 degrees south. I am the Captain.”

The reply: “Request you alter your course 10 degrees north. I am a third class seaman.”

This time, the Captain became furious: “Request you alter your course 10 degrees south. I am a battleship.”

The reply: “Request you alter you course 10 degrees north. I am a lighthouse.” It’s up to you.

It’s up to you. The choice is yours. Jesus is the Lighthouse in our lives. The adversities in our lives are avenues that God uses to direct us to Himself, once again. God has made the way for us:

I am the way

and the truth and the life.

John 14:6 (NIV)

In times of darkness, don’t doubt what God has shown you in the Light. It all comes down to whether or not we trust God. And our question, “Can God be trusted?” is only answered by yet another question, “Is God REALLY sovereign?” Our faith hinges on our answer to that one question. And our answer changes everything.

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

There’s no such thing as God being “almost” sovereign. He either is or He isn’t. And if He isn’t, then He can’t be trusted.

“What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” —A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

You see, God is real, whether we believe He is or not. Our disbelief doesn’t erase His existence—just as our lack of faith and trust in Him doesn’t nullify His faithfulness.

What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? (Romans 3:3 NIV)

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. (2 Timothy 2:13 NIV)

You may be at a place that you’re not even sure God exists, much less at a point of trusting in His sovereignty; you may need to take a step back and understand why it is you should believe.

[Note: If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior and you’re exhausted from the trials of life and going your own way, you can come to Him now. (He’s always waiting.) Without Christ, your suffering is meaningless misery. But if you’ll let Him take control of your life, becoming Lord and Savior, He’ll walk with you through every difficulty and give you unimaginable peace and joy, even in the midst of pain. If you would like to accept His offer of salvation, you can pray:

Lord Jesus, I believe you are truly the Son of God. I confess that I have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed. Please forgive me for all of my wrongdoings and let me now live in relationship with You going forward. I receive You as my personal Savior, accepting the work you accomplished on the Cross to save me from my sins. Fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I might follow you all the days of my life. Amen.

Once you’ve prayed that prayer, seek after Jesus with all that you are. Meditate on His Word day and night. Grab hold of God and never let go. God loves you with an unfailing love.]

The only way to trust God is to know Him. And knowing God is the key to finding peace and purpose in a life that can seem incredibly overwhelming on some days and absolutely meaningless on others. In His great love for us, He says that if we’ll seek Him, we’ll find Him . . . if we seek Him with all of our heart. And what we’ll find is that ironically, His existence, His sovereignty, and His power and providence is less about faith and more about facts.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV)

Although it may seem like it, God isn’t hiding from you. He’s not avoiding the “tough” questions or the “awkward” situations—He’s always waiting for you to come to Him.

So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18 NLT)

God waits for you to come to Him. He longs to pour out His love upon you and bring Light into your darkness. But, He loves you more than that . . . in His sovereignty, He knows that through this journey of life you will need to trust Him for everything, in order for you to experience peace and joy while on this earth. So, He’s allowed, in His wisdom, your situation of desperation. It’s an opportunity for God to teach you something deeper about Himself. He has brought you to your knees, so that you have nowhere to look, but up. He has a habit of allowing us to dig holes so deep that we can’t get out without His help. It’s by design. God is teaching us to trust. The paradox of the Christian faith walk is that the strongest Christian is the weakest Christian.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV)

The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25 NIV)

But, how do we trust God? How can we be sure of His Promises? In order to trust God, we need to “know” Him. And in order to know Him . . . we must listen to His voice. And His voice is heard through His Word.

My suffering was good for me,

for it taught me to pay attention

to your decrees.

(Psalm 119:71 NLT)

If we are to trust God, then it is crucial that we have confidence in His sovereignty in all that affects us. If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then God can’t be trusted. If you believe in a world of pure chance, what difference would it make if a plane crashes in a random city and yours makes it safely to its destination? But if you believe in a world that is ruled by a powerful, loving, and gracious God who cares for you at all times, then that belief makes an incredible difference.

We must be absolutely convinced that God’s love is perfect and His wisdom, infinite. Our trust in God cannot be based upon someone else’s experience, but upon what God has told us about Himself in His Word. We want to see God at work in our lives, yet we fail to realize that His hand is only visible to eyes of faith. And faith doesn’t walk by sight.

“Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the rewards of this faith is to see what we believe.” —St. Augustine

We have to receive God by faith—by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. When you learn to trust God, you don’t have to “see” anything. You just know with all certainty that He’s there.

There was a little boy who was out flying a kite. It was a fine day for kite flying; the wind was brisk and large billowy clouds were blowing across the sky. The kite went up and up until it was entirely hidden by the clouds. “What are you doing?” a man asked the little boy. “I’m flying a kite,” he replied. “Flying a kite, are you?” the man asked. “How can you be sure? You can’t see your kite.” “No,” said the boy, “I can’t see it, but every little while I feel a tug, so I know for sure that it’s there!”

Despite all appearances, we must trust God through our faith in His revealed Word. His Word is vital to our survival . . . it’s what lights our path:

Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105 NIV)

We want to know His “ways”. . . they’re not hidden—they’re revealed through His Word. As we seek Him and His voice through His Word, we get a glimpse of God’s ways—how He thinks and how He acts. He’s told us that we need His Word just as we need bread for our physical bodies:

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4 NIV)

God’s Word is straight from His mouth. His Word was written to teach us:

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. (Romans 15:4 NLT)

God’s ways are revealed through His Word. He loves you enough to speak to you—to tell you the Truth. And through His Words, we learn that He is sovereign—the Scriptures give proof throughout history that He is.

THE FACTS OF FAITH

God’s Word, the Bible is the most unique book ever written. It is the Bestselling book of all time across over 2000 years. That alone is astounding. Unique to the Bible are the foretelling of over 2500 prophecies of which approximately 2000 have already been fulfilled. (The remaining 500 reach into the future and are yet to unfold.) (You can find more astounding facts where Faith meets Science at: http://www.reasons.org) If you’re a numbers person, you can make an attempt to digest that the probability of any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance are less than 1 in 10, conservatively. The more intriguing part is that the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another , so the odds for these being fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 10²ººº. (That’s 1 with 2000 zeroes behind it!) (Facts found at Reasons.org) Although others have “partially” predicted events over time, God specifically states in Deuteronomy 18:21-22 that He does not make even the SLIGHTEST error in His predictions. With God, there is NO room for error. These are facts . . .  not faith.

For over two thousand years, the Bible has been scrutinized more than any other book on earth. No one has been able to disprove Its authenticity. By just the mere fact that It has survived such harsh critics should alert us to Its supernatural quality. In a world of such abundant evil and cynicism, the Bible should have been dismantled a LONG time ago.

“Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. With their massora they kept tabs on every letter, syllable and paragraph. They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity . . . whoever counted the letters, syllables, or words of Plato or Aristotle? Cicero or Seneca?” —Bernard Ramm, Can I Trust My Old Testament? (Speaking on the accuracy and number of Biblical manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures.)

“The truth is that the Bible, when compared to other ancient writings, has more manuscript evidence than any 10 pieces of classical literature combined. The facts show that no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.” —John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity

When you break down the Bible, Its reliability must be tested just as any other ancient document. In order to study the Bible’s reliability, historians have studied the number of existing manuscripts and the dating of those manuscripts. For starters, there are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that date between 40-100 A.D. If you include the manuscripts of the New Testament in Latin and earlier versions, the total number of manuscripts of the New Testament reach over 24,000 copies. These are HISTORICAL documents, authenticated. Historians, not Christians, have proven it. The Bible is reliable. And that changes everything.

“It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.”—Nelson Glueck (Renowned Jewish archaeologist)

“There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition.” —William F. Albright (One of the world’s most renowned archaeologists.)

For most, it’s not the reliability of the Bible’s documents that are the problem . . . it’s the “supernatural” side of things that causes people not to believe. The bottom line, no matter how hard you try, you can’t argue with God.

If you just go with the basics of the Bible, if you just think about It in a common sense way, why would the writers of the greatest book in history acknowledge such dreadful sins and doubt in God. Why would God allow this to be written in His book? Why wouldn’t you, as an author, paint a more “rosy” picture of yourself? Instead, God reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly. He reveals Truth. He reveals His mercy and He assures His wrath. He sheds light on the trials of the greatest saints to ever walk the earth. He shows their vulnerability, their fears, and their atrocious failures. He shows how He works in the lives of those who hate Him and how He gives grace to those who should never deserve it. He takes a man who murders Christians and makes him into an apostle that changes the course of the Christian faith forever. The Apostle Paul, by his own admission, was the worst of sinners. Yet, God reached down, made him blind, and then made him REALLY see.

You can look at every single documented event in the Bible and see that God is speaking to us. He’s showing us things about Himself and ourselves. He has proven throughout history that He is absolutely trustworthy. Time and time again, He’s shown that His grace prevails. Even upon the Cross, the criminal who hung beside Jesus acknowledged his sin and laid his soul before God’s mercy. The message: It’s never too late to believe . . . it’s never too late to turn to God and trust Him. His mercies never fail (see Lamentations 3:22).

In the face of all that you must go through in life . . . with all that you choose to believe in this life, why not take a risk and just “make the choice” to believe God . . . to take Him at His Word? So many get to this point of decision, yet can’t step forward . . . the reason—Pride.

SURRENDER

You may think you are going through trials and tragedies that are insurmountable, but none of them would compare to God abandoning you to yourself. Nothing would be more catastrophic than God allowing us to go our own way with no hope of turning back to Him. His love sees past our pride and offers grace at every turn. God knows that our pride keeps us from understanding our desperate natural condition. The truth is: we’re corrupt in every facet of our character. But, though we’re broken, we can be fixed. God loves us too much to leave us as we are. So, when we come to Him, when we abandon all else, we encounter a Divine exchange: We surrender this life—God gives us TRUE life. Seems like a no–brainer, don’t you think?

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:24-26 NIV)

Forfeiting your soul—that’s a depressing and defeating thought. But, people do it every day—they forfeit their souls to addictions, hopelessness, fear, and despair. Maybe you’ve done it. If you have, there’s still hope. As long as you’re alive, you can be Jesus’ disciple. All you have to do is surrender.

The great misconception is that God loves us just as we are. That’s true and not true. The truth is: He loves us too much to leave us as we are. He’s not going to leave us where He found us or how He found us, if we surrender ourselves into His care. Truly, we must die to self. Why? Because all too often, our pride gets the best of us—we seem to think we’re better than God. We pick apart His plan and question His purposes. In times of deep despair we dethrone Him through our doubt and find Him a failure through our fears. We cling to what we know, see, and feel, and then declare that God just isn’t there. We trust ourselves, instead of God. And that . . .  is the greatest tragedy. But, God is greater than our sin . . . He’s greater than our pride.

If we’ll surrender, laying down our lives, and abandoning ourselves to Him, He goes to work. In your surrender, His Light will slowly, but surely, pierce the darkness you’ve been walking in. He’ll reach down and save you. And then He’ll take your brokenness and put you back together better than before. You can’t make all your wrongs right, but God can. You can’t change your heart’s desires, but God will (see Ezekiel 36:26). You can’t walk through your valley in your own strength, but you can do it in His.

With all that God promises to do in exchange for surrendering our pride, which destroys our lives anyway, why wouldn’t we run to Him in helpless abandon? Why wouldn’t we turn to Him and trust Him? It’s for one reason alone: We don’t understand the depths of His love.

CRAZY LOVE

There’s something you need to know about God before you trust Him . . . His love is CRAZY. In fact, His love makes no sense at all. Don’t try and understand God’s love—just receive it.

God’s love not only abounds, it proliferates. It is unfailing and overflowing. His love is excessive and beyond measure. Yet, when we’re facing evil and suffering, we interpret our circumstances to mean that God doesn’t love us after all. In fact, we’re disappointed beyond words that His love for us doesn’t exempt us from our pain and suffering. Isn’t faith supposed to be our insurance policy against pain and suffering? If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? In the face of such difficult questions, and with the appearance that God is dodging them all, He speaks volumes through His Word once more:

After God revealed his name to Moses, “He passed in front of Moses proclaiming, ‘The Lord, The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’” (Exodus 34:6-7 NIV)

The love we know and “experience” here on earth sets us up for failure in our relationship with God. Superficial love does not withstand the test of time or trials of life. God doesn’t love us on our terms, but His.

The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him. (Psalm 32:10 NIV)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. (Psalm 51:1 NIV)

Grasping the Truth of God’s love is the secret to a victorious life. God’s love conquers all. No matter what you face, no matter the depths of your sin, God’s love overcomes them all—not because of what you’ve done, but because of what He did . . . it’s all about the Cross . . . His love and mercy poured out WHILE we were still sinners. You can’t gain God’s love and you can’t lose it. It’s crazy. Hold on to Truth and never let go. God’s love will set you free and keep you free.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:10 NIV, 19 NKJV)

To know God, is to know that God’s love remains even through our trials and temptations, through our joys and pains, and through our faith and doubt. We must dwell in God’s love and know that even though He is loving, He is holy . . . and holiness demands justice.

God is love, but He is not only love. We can’t be fooled: God’s love in the New Testament does not eclipse His holiness. If we think that God only loves and does not hate, then you’d think He’d only call upon us to love . . . but He doesn’t. He commands, “Hate evil, love good” (see Amos 5:15). God is clear in the Psalms when He declares, “He [God] is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11 NLT). To look at life through the eyes of God is to love good and hate evil. Our God of love is also a God of wrath (see Romans 1:18). It was the same Jesus who spoke words of compassionate love and forgiveness that also spoke some of the harshest words of condemnation. Jesus spoke more about Hell, than anyone else in the Bible. His infinite love required Him to condemn and to call for repentance. Who the Lord loves, He also disciplines; He punishes those whom He calls His children. So, we can’t be tempted to believe that just because we’re being punished for our sins, or we’re enduring the suffering caused by another’s sins, God doesn’t love us. He will love us through it. He’ll use it all to draw us nearer to Him.

“Is Israel still my son, my darling?” says the Lord. “I often have to punish him, but I still love him. That’s why I long for him and surely I will have mercy on him.” (Jeremiah 31:20 NLT)

“I have loved you my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” (Jeremiah 31:3 NLT)

His love, in its perfection, corrects and bandages us. Though His hand may strike us, it also heals (see John 5:17-27). Though troubles come, His love prevails.

His love never quits.

—Eugene Peterson

The knowledge of God’s love for you is the foundational Truth upon which all other truths are built. You can’t go forward in faith, you can’t understand God’s ways, until you understand His love.

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT)

Did you catch that? He’ll make a home in your heart. The moment you fully accept God’s love for you, something’s about to happen: He’s about to make your heart His home. He’s about to go to work. And all the construction is going to seem chaotic—it’s going to be painful. As He oversees your circumstances, He’s about to go to work on you. As you’re trusting God, accepting His love, and pressing forward in faith, the chaos shouldn’t be confused with the transforming works of God’s hands. Although He destroys, He rebuilds. He’s got the blueprints for your life . . . and there’s some work that needs to be done. When you’re trusting God, you’re always a “work in progress.”

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” —George MacDonald (Quoted by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)

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Chapter 2:

Work In Progress

If God says He never sleeps or slumbers (see Psalm 121:4), we’d like to see proof of it. In our trials, we’re not convinced that He’s working at all. If He were, wouldn’t our problems be solved? Why are we waiting around, seemingly wasting time? Why is God silent when He should speak? Is He just too busy with the rest of the universe? We can almost hear the automated response, “Thank you for calling . . . your call will be answered in the order it was received . . . you are number 5,879,230,621 . . . thank you for your patience . . . God will be with you momentarily.”

As we’re put “on hold,” our despair has us grasping for hope amid complete hopelessness and holding on to our faith with little evidence that God will ever answer. Our words mimic our Savior’s:

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

(My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)

(Matthew 27:46 NIV)

And all of heaven is silent.

In perhaps the saddest two lines ever documented in history, Jesus shared in our feelings of abandonment. In this moment of agony, where He endured the suffering that was due us, He was separated for the first time, from Almighty God—He endured the punishment for our sins. But God was at work. God had a plan. His ways are always higher. And if we’ll trust Him, we’ll never be disappointed.

Those who hope in me will never be disappointed.

(Isaiah 49:23 NIV)

But as Jesus hung on His Cross and we’re crumbling beneath the weight of ours, God is silent. It’s His silence that is our greatest test of faith. But, in these moments of silence, God is at work. He’s building our faith by threatening to destroy it. His delays are not His denials and His silence is not His solution.

Meanwhile, where is God? . . . When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is in vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound or bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble? —C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Here’s the thing: sometimes, we wish God would show up with such intensity that His reality and power would be overwhelmingly evident. We want to see Him rip open heaven, reveal Himself, and then take His place among us here on earth. Quite frankly, we’d like a little help down here! Is that too much to ask? We want to see His hands laid upon the sick and witness miraculous healings. We’d like to see Him rise in the midst of a hurricane and cause the storm to cease. After all, He used to show up that way. In the Old Testament, He showed up in ways with dramatic signs and wonders . . . why can’t He do that now? In our questioning, as we try to go ahead of God, we find He’s always one step ahead of us:

Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “You will never believe. (John 4:48 NIV)

We think we’ve got Him stumped on this one. Now we’ve got God cornered with a question that He can’t satisfyingly answer. If He’s at work . . . “Where are the miracles?”

God’s answer takes us back to the Israelites. They were no different than us. They had a pattern in their life, and so do we—unbelief . . . lack of trust in God. The truth is: we don’t want to walk by faith . . . we pray for our faith to take sight. Yet, God knows that seeing miracles doesn’t build our relationship with Him. The proof is in the Old and New Testament. God answers our question . . . it’s just not what we wanted to hear.

If we go back to the day of Moses when He’s standing at the edge of the Red Sea with somewhere between two and three million Israelites needing to cross . . . and an Egyptian army encroaching, ready to slaughter them all . . . what had God done up to this point? Miracles. God had sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians—the last two being especially severe. God had rescued them out of slavery. Yet as they stood at the Red Sea, fear got the best of them and they began to cry out to God in anger. They declared it would have been better for them to have stayed in Egypt. But, God steps up the plate, despite their lack of faith, and parts the Red Sea. He is faithful, even when we’re not.

So, God continues to lead them, yet He takes them into a place of complete and utter helplessness—the wilderness. God takes them into a situation that was out of their control. They had no control over their survival in the desolate desert where there was no food or water. They had no compass or maps—they literally had NO IDEA where they were going. Though the situation doesn’t look good, God manifests Himself in a cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night that they followed . . . and when it stopped, they rested (see Exodus 13:21-22, Numbers 9:34-36).

As they traveled, their need for food and water became intense. So, God, hearing their murmurings, gave them water and bread. Not for just one day . . . for FORTY years (see Joshua 5:12). He made water come out of a ROCK! As if that were not enough, God supernaturally protected them from enemies in battle (see Exodus 17). Surely, these miracles were enough to convince them of God’s provision. Not quite. The Israelites grew weary and began to rebel against God. His provisions weren’t meeting up to their expectations. It appears that mighty acts of God are not quite enough to convince us, going forward in life, that God is there and that He cares.

Yet, God was at work, He had brought them into such desperation, so that they might realize their need for Him and so that they had the opportunity to see His miraculous power at work in their lives. He took them into places that were completely beyond their control, so that they might grow in faith . . . so that their faith would be unwavering. He wanted them to be a people that would trust Him completely, giving Him full control over every aspect of their lives, so that they would be a testimony to His love, mercy, and grace. But, that’s not what happened. Most of them died in the desert . . . for lack of trust in a God who had spoken to them, answered prayers, directed their every step, and performed miracles, continually. (Something to think about.)

As if this example were not enough, God humbles us by bringing up the New Testament. God came down to earth. He stepped into our world . . . to give us the greatest miracle of all—eternal life. While He journeyed on this earth, He performed miracles, just to give us a glimpse of His power. Jesus first turned water to wine—providing, not a need, but an overflow of life. As He traveled with His Disciples, the Bible says He performed MANY miracles. He healed diseases, demanded demon possessed be freed, and cleansed lepers. And He didn’t stop there. Those miracles were mere child’s play in the eyes of the doubtful crowds. Instead, He took the Disciples into a raging storm and then caused it to come to a halt by His words alone. As if that were not enough, he healed a paralytic laying on a mat, healed a bleeding woman (not through His will, but through her faith), raised a dead girl and a dear friend to life, made a blind man see, a mute man speak, fed five thousand near Bethsaida Julius with just five loaves and two fish (He even performed that miracle again, just because the Disciples seemed to forget!), and then thought it would be life-changing to walk on water. We’d like to think if WE would have been there, we would have believed! How could you not? But, by the Gospel writers’ own admission, they doubted . . . even after all the miracles.

It’s when they came to a crowd near the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee that the gathering of people became overwhelming; they had no food, so the Disciples began to panic. What? That’s right . . . they were distraught, and as a last resort sought Jesus’ help. Again, He performs the miracle of feeding 4,000 . . . that was after He had already fed 5,000 back in Decapolis! They even had leftovers to bring with them! (God provides beyond all our needs.)

Yet, as they continue their travels, they forget the bread. (We tend to forget all that God has provided us as well.) So, they begin panicking again and Jesus overhears them. Jesus had a few words for them, and for us:

You have so little faith! Why are you arguing with each other about having no bread? Don’t you understand even yet? Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed with the five loaves, and the basket of leftovers you picked up? Or the 4,000 I fed with the seven loaves, and the large baskets you picked up?

We can’t imagine what the Disciples must have been feeling at this point. If there were a hole, they likely would have crawled into it. But, they couldn’t have been feeling any worse than John the Baptist when he, too, questioned Jesus’ authenticity.

John was expecting miracles from the Messiah. Not too much to ask, you’d think, since John had prepared the way for Jesus to come into the world . . . even baptizing Him. But, John sat rotting in a prison. (We can understand how John’s faith might waiver in such circumstances . . . we’ve been there in various ways.) And when the Disciples came to report the miracles Jesus had been doing, John had one thing to say to Jesus:

Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? (Luke 7:19 NIV)

Don’t we feel the same? When we’re in a pit, held captive in the prison of our pain, we wonder if God is who He really says He is . . . because if He were, we’d expect to be set free. We’d expect our pain and suffering to end.

Jesus’ words in reply are humbling, but less than comforting:

Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because (are not offended by me) of me.’ (Luke 7:32 NLT)

It wasn’t long after that John was beheaded. God gave John no miracle. Yet, if we’re aware of God’s ways, then we can see, looking back on history, that God had given John the greatest miracle of all—the miracle within himself. The miracle of faith that doesn’t demand one’s own way, but accepts God’s and does not turn away simply because God doesn’t do it their way. Jesus had a few more words about miracles:

Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, . . . (Matthew 16:4 NLT)

He sighed deeply and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.’ (Mark 8:12 NIV)

It is painfully obvious . . . miracles don’t equal faith. Our faith walk does not progress with giant leaps forward; we don’t gain faith through burning bushes or bolts of lightning. (We forget the miracles far too easily . . . even dramatic ones.)

Our ancestors in Egypt were not impressed by the Lord’s miraculous deeds. They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them. Instead, they rebelled against him at the Red Sea. (Psalm 106:7 NLT)

When we’re suffering in ways that words cannot express, we want God to speak—OUT LOUD! We want Him to grant us a miraculous deliverance, quickly meet our needs, and remove all our pain and suffering. Is that too much to ask? But God’s ways, being higher than our own, don’t work that way. God doesn’t make deals . . . i.e. in exchange for a miracle, we’ll have faith in Him for the rest of our life. (He’s smarter than that.) In our desperation, He shows us that what produces faith is a Christian who endures trials, storms, pain and suffering, with unwavering faith. It’s when our heart is in constant pursuit of His, through the wilderness of life, that we emerge stronger in character, stronger in faith, stronger in Christ . . . ready for anything. And He lovingly points the way: “The road is this way.” . . . “Great,” we sarcastically reply, “always wanted to be a part of ‘Man vs. wild.’ ” (God likes a sense of humor by the way . . . He’s got one. If you haven’t noticed that, maybe you should get to know Him better!)

So, what we find is that the road of faith takes us into the wilderness . . . and sometimes we, like the Israelites, spend forty years there. But, even in the wilderness, God provides our every need for our journey with Him. He promises His provision and shows His faithfulness even through our doubts. The daily bread from heaven, only enough for that day (see Exodus 16:4), reminds us of our desperate need for God. God wants us to desire Him for Who He is, not just what He gives . . . and over history, we’ve proven that miracles will never cause us to trust. God knows us better than we know ourselves. We’ve got short term spiritual memory.

But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him. (John 12:37 NLT)

God’s ways include taking us through times when there are no miracles—no signs to solidify our faith. He’s teaching us something. He’s teaching us to move on in faith . . . not according to a vision or a voice, but in the midst of the wilderness—where He is all we have. It’s there, in the “dry places” of our life that we learn He is all we need. He wants us to be confident that when we cannot hear His voice or see the path ahead, He’s leading us somewhere and we can trust Him. He’s making a path. He’s at work in your life.

But he knows the way I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10 NIV)

Though the path God makes is crooked, mysterious, painful, and paved with tears, He’s made it. Though the furnace of affliction is seven times heated—He lighted it. Though the furnace of affliction is hot, we can trust the hand that kindles it. Through His Promises, the fires will not consume us, but refine us.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2 NIV)

It’s the Almighty God who is directing our footsteps. It’s His hand that is holding us to the fire, so that we might come forth as gold. But, we prayed for silver.

We pray for silver,

but God gives us gold instead.

—Martin Luther

Sure, God can part Red Seas, drop bread out of heaven, bring water from a rock, heal, and just for a good shock . . . walk on water, but He’d rather do something more miraculous than that—He’d rather you love Him. He’d rather you know Him. He’d rather give you what you need, instead of what you want. He wants you to have unshakable faith and trust in Him. It’s the faith that can’t be shaken that’s the faith that has been shaken.

Have you come to the Red Sea

place in your life,

Where, in spite of all you can do,

There is no way out,

there is no way back,

There is no other way through?

Then wait on the Lord

with a trust serene

Till the night of your fear is gone;

He will send the wing,

He will heap the floods,

When He says to your soul, “Go on.”

And His hand will lead you through

—clear through—

Ere the watery walls roll down,

No foe can reach you,

no wave can tough,

No mightiest sea can drown;

The tossing billows

may rear their crests,

Their foam at your feet may break,

But over their bed

you shall walk dry shod

In the path that your Lord will make.

In the morning watch,

beneath the lifted cloud,

You shall see but the Lord alone,

When He leads you on

from the place of the sea

To a land that you have not known;

And your fears shall pass

as your foes have passed,

You shall be no more afraid;

You shall sing His praise

in a better place,

A place that His hand has made.

—Annie Johnson Flint

Although you’re overwhelmed and don’t have the strength to take one more step, God’s laying out the path that He’s taking you down . . . you won’t be able to travel it in your own strength—He’ll be your guide and your strength. He’s about to show you some things that are beyond miraculous and will forever place your faith on a firm foundation. But, before excitement gets the best of you, you probably need to know . . . this path is a pathway of brokenness.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. (Psalm 142:3 NASB)

The pathway of brokenness, the valleys which we find ourselves in throughout life, is simply the avenue whereby God’s heart transforms ours.

But then I will win

her back once again.

I will lead her into the desert

and speak tenderly to her there.

I will return her vineyards to her and

transform the Valley of Trouble

into a gateway of hope.

(Hosea 2:14-15 NLT)

THE PATHWAY OF BROKENNESS

Sometimes we get on this path by our own wrongdoings; more often, we had nothing to do with it all. Philip Yancey, in his priceless book, Where is God When it Hurts?, gives ample explanation for the cause of suffering in this world:

“Much of the suffering on our planet has come about because of two principles that God built into creation: a physical world that runs according to consistent natural laws, and human freedom.”

No matter the cause, God is with us. And no matter how difficult the trial, we’re told to consider it all joy.

Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. (James 1:2 NLT)

As if our trials in life were not difficult enough, God allows a statement like that to be printed . . . adding an even greater burden to the ones we’re already crumbling beneath. But, God knows what He’s talking about. These times of trials, this pathway of brokenness, is part of a process. It’s His work in progress.

Just as we crush grapes to make wine and grind wheat for bread . . . God is breaking us so that He might transform our lives completely. God works through our weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties, for Christ’s sake and for our own. It’s when you are weak . . . He is strong:

For when I am weak,

then I am strong.

(2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV)

Why are we strong when we are weak? It’s because we are no longer relying on ourselves to save us . . . we’re relying on the only One who can—God.

God didn’t choose just anyone to write these words. He chose Paul, one who had murdered those who had worshipped Christ, been converted on the road to Damascus, and then after sacrificing his life for the gospel, wound up beaten, imprisoned, and shipwrecked. That’s when he wrote these words. Not in the midst of great miracles, or in mountaintop moments. Paul found God, more times than not, in brokenness. And so will we.

Paul learned something that we tend to forget: our present sufferings are a brief, but important part of a larger plan . . . one day, it will all be worthwhile. Paul trusted in God’s greater good and so must we. Yet, although this may make perfectly good sense to an “all-knowing” God, it simply makes no sense at all to us. We are haunted by the Truth that “His ways are higher.” If we can come to view our lives in light of God’s long-term glory instead of our short-term happiness, we take one step further into being transformed into the likeness of Christ . . . which is exactly what God is doing. He’s working on us, out of love, to make us more like Jesus.

And I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6 NLT)

If we won’t humble ourselves before God, He’ll do it for us. He loves us that much. What we learn upon our knees is that this life is not about us. It’s foremost about the purposes, plan, and glory of God. We don’t need to run from suffering or lose hope if God doesn’t remove it . . . we must trust that God has a perfectly good purpose for allowing all that He permits. But it’s just not that easy is it?

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” —C.S. Lewis

We, like Jesus, feel that maybe, just maybe, there’s another way. Quite possibly, this pathway through brokenness isn’t all that necessary. But, God seems to think He knows best. And if we’ll stop for a moment, we should consider how many times (probably never) we have ever heard someone say, “I grew closest to God when my life was free of pain and suffering.”

Though we question God’s ways, He never changes (see Malachi 3:6), so we might as well settle in for the journey. At times, He may take us around this path, more often than not, He won’t. But, He takes our hand, protects and provides, and carries us when we’re too weak to travel on.

“Never mind if you think you are unable to take another step, for either He will strengthen you to make you able, or He will call a sudden halt, and you will not have to take it at all.” —Frances Ridley Havergal

God may, at times, deliver us from suffering, but more often than not, He sustains us. Though the pathway of brokenness doesn’t appear to show any resemblance of mercy or grace, suffering leads us to repentance and humility—bringing us to a place of trusting God. It’s God’s grace . . . disguised. As our heart is breaking, God is beckoning us to receive the fullness of His.

Our brokenness is God’s way of dealing with our pride—the desire within us to act independently from Him. No matter how “matured” we are in our faith, we continually fight the temptation to do things our way, rather than His.

If we choose our way, instead of God’s, we hinder our relationship with Him and delay the fulfillment of His will in our lives—we remain in the wilderness . . . with the potential of dying there.

C.S. Lewis said in The Problem of Pain,

“The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.”

We deceive ourselves. We should be thankful for pain which alerts us to our true condition. It’s pain that gives us the ability to know pleasure. Pain is not meant to work against us. We shouldn’t try to avoid pain and suffering, but understand it’s purpose . . . to turn us to God, to demand that we come to terms with our need for help . . . Divine help . . . our need for God. And that . . . is the purpose for our pain.

“But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:11 NIV)

THE PURPOSE OF PAIN

To believe that there is purpose in pain is simply difficult, at best, to grasp. But there ARE purposes for it. This pathway of brokenness, this work that God is doing in us, through it, may seem like a high price to pay for faith . . . but that’s because we tend to underestimate faith’s value.

“Suffering so unbolts the door of the heart, that the Word hath easier entrance.” —Richard Baxter

Pain is a tool in the hand of God. He uses our sufferings to bring us to the end of ourselves and back into His arms. Isn’t that worth any cost? Maybe so, but it will take our faith a while to agree . . . that’s why God is taking us down this path . . . He has things to teach us and show us along the way. Our faith is a journey, not a destination. The furnace may be a painful process, but the reality is, as some Chinese Christians say: True gold does not fear the fire.

Though we walk through a valley, a shadow of death, when we get to the other side of it, when we’ve gone “through” it, God knows we’ll have an absolute confidence in Him. We’ll have the assurance that God will walk with us throughout the remainder of our lives. We’ll experience His faithfulness and be less inclined to fear . . . for He is with us. The valley produces the kind of Christ-like perseverance that will lead us Home. God never wastes our suffering . . . there are purposes for our pain.

Paul reveals just a few of God’s purposes through our pain. He reveals God’s ways to us, in order that we might have joy. You see, there’s more to James 1:2. Paul goes on to show us that through our pain, God is at work . . . doing good things. James 1:3-4 (NLT) reveals God’s ways for every valley in life:

For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So, let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

God wants us ready for anything. We need to be ready for anything and everything in this life. No one has to tell you that.

“A faith that leaves us unprepared for suffering is a false faith that deserves to be lost. Suffering will come; we owe it to God, ourselves, and those around us to prepare for it.” —Randy Alcorn, If God is Good

For faith to be genuine, it must be tested. There’s no way for this “cup to pass.” In order for anything to be strengthened, it must meet resistance. It’s easy to trust God when all is well, but can you sing “All is Well With My Soul” when you’re financially ruined, when you’re back to work at an age when your body is falling apart, when your spouse walks out unexpectedly, when your child’s disease takes a turn for the worse, when doubt is pounding down your door and you have no strength to keep it out? When times get tough, our faith can take a nosedive. In moments like these, it appears we’re flunking the “test.” We’re hoping God grades on the curve. But instead, He reaches down, takes us by the hand and embraces us with His grace.

I would rather be a leper who knows Christ than to be completely whole and a stranger to His grace.

—Alice Gray, The City of God

In desperate situations of life, our faith has a collision between high hopes and harsh realities. In the depths of our darkness we grasp this truth:

“Faith isn’t faith until it’s all you’re holding on to.”

—Patrick Overton

So, this test of faith has qualities of its own. For starters, Paul says it produces endurance. It’s not necessarily what we’d desire—we’re hoping this journey of faith is a sprint, not a marathon. When suffering is draining the life out of us, we’re convinced that endurance is not something we’re interested in achieving. Yet, even in our resistance, God sovereignly and lovingly protects us by determining the length and intensity of every trial (see the Biblical book of Job).

Although we may not think we can endure, God knows our limits and won’t go beyond them. If we can trust God in that way, we can find the strength to take just one more step. God’s goal for us in our pain and suffering is that we patiently abide in the trial with an attitude of unfailing trust in His goodness. God wants to bring us to a place in our faith where we have a firm determination to live for His purposes, regardless of the cost.

“The greatest saint is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who give most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God willith, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.” —William Law

But, it’s not all about endurance. God’s long term vision for us is that we would be “fully developed,” or as some translations put it, “perfect and complete.” Surrendering to God, making Him Lord of your life, goes far beyond baptism and a one-time confession of faith—it’s just the beginning. God’s desire is that we would become mature in our faith . . . conforming to the image of His Son. It’s our trials, our sufferings, our moments of crying, “Why, God, Why?” where we are closer to Christ than we have ever been. Our faith, learning to trust God, is a life-long process. He uses the fire to bring impurities to the surface, so that we might seek His help in overcoming every hindrance that holds us back from His best in our lives.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1 NLT)

Until we reflect Christ in every area of our lives, we are a “work in progress.” As the reality of God’s ways and this path He is paving sets in, we realize we may be in this valley a little longer than we had hoped.

If we’re to be “ready for anything,” or “lacking in nothing,” by our own admission, we’d say God has a lot of work to do in us. The most surprising of all the purposes in our pain is that we might develop the right attitude through each and every trial. Evidently, God thinks that through our suffering we need an “attitude adjustment.” He’s probably right. We’re not exactly “content” when our home is foreclosed upon. We’re not exactly finding it “all joy” when cancer is the diagnosis. In fact, anger and resentment seem more fitting in circumstances like these. But God is at work in us and as He’s teaching us to trust Him, He’s also showing us that we need to do it with the right attitude.

So, to keep me from becoming proud, I was given my thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NLT)

Whatever our “thorn in the flesh” is . . . we’re to take pleasure in it. Knowing our thoughts about this “thorn,” we’re thinking God bit off a little more than He could chew when it comes to working on this part of our faith. He’s asking us to do the impossible! Once again, we get it wrong . . . He’s not asking us to do anything . . . He’s only asking us to rely on His grace . . . which makes ALL things possible.

In the wise words of Philip Yancey (Where is God When it Hurts?), “(pain) and suffering can serve as instruments to teach us the value of dependence, and unless we learn dependence we will never experience grace.” As Philip Yancey investigates the purposes for our pain and suffering, he stumbles across “advantages” of pain and suffering—quite a discovery in many ways. No one ever thinks of pain and suffering as being “advantageous.” But one nun, Monika Hellwig, whom Yancey resources, lists those advantages and Yancey expands upon them:

1. Suffering, the great equalizer, brings us to a point where we may realize our urgent need for redemption.

2. Those who suffer know not only their dependence on God and on healthy people but also the interdependence with one another.

3. Those who suffer rest their security not in one thing, which often cannot be enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather on people.

4. Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy. Suffering humbles the proud.

5. Those who suffer expect little from competition and much from cooperation.

6. Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries.

7. Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.

8. Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears.

9. To suffering people, the gospel sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding. It offers hope and comfort.

10. Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything.

Yancey goes on to list the great qualities of a “prized” spiritual life: dependence, humility, simplicity, cooperation, being abandoned to God. And that is how God uses pain and suffering. He brings us to a place of trusting Him . . . of relying on Him completely. In this world, there is no greater advantage.

If we’ll trust Him, He’ll grow our faith in ways that we can never imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). Truly, nothing is too difficult for God!

For nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37 NIV)

In the face of impossibilities, God is at work within us through our pain and suffering, and what He accomplishes in the process is far more precious than gold (see 1 Peter 1:7).

“God uses suffering to purge sin from our lives, strengthen our commitment to him, force us to depend on his grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, impart wisdom, stretch our hope, cause us to know Christ better, make us long for truth, lead us to repentance of sin, teach us to give thanks in times of sorrow, increase our faith, and strengthen our character.” —Randy Alcorn, If God is Good

God’s purposes go far beyond anything we could hope for or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). His desire is that we would know Him in an intimate way. He wants our faith to go beyond simply summoning miraculous signs and wonders. He wants us to learn to truly trust Him, even in His silence. He wants to give us an extraordinary measure of faith that will carry us through this life, so that we might live without fear, until we see Him face to face. He wants us to draw near to Him, so that He might draw near to us. He wants us to walk with Him awhile . . . through the valley of adversity.

WALKING WITH GOD

From David to Paul, the message of God is clear: God wants us lacking nothing. Even Adam and Eve had everything in the Garden in abundance. But now, we must choose the way we’ll walk—the abundance God gave us in the beginning just didn’t seem to be enough. And although we’d like to think we would have handled things in the Garden differently, we don’t.

We know Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden because they hid from Him one day. We tend to hide every day. Our agenda seems to push God’s aside and quite frankly, at times, He just cramps our style. We’re convinced that His way is not the “best” way and He should just stick to taking care of His matters in heaven, since He can’t seem to get it right down here. In a moment of insanity, we prepare our résumé and await God to show us His. Guess who’s better qualified? Right answer.

Even through our pride and arrogance, God still loves us. And although we’d like to think that the life of faith is about trusting in a God who gives us “things,” we encounter a rude awakening when we realize that what He really wants to give us is Himself . . . which is “everything.” Our valleys of life are an invitation, to walk with God . . . to get to know Him personally. He’s inviting you to a life of faith that goes far beyond knowing “about” Him.

“The life of faith is not about things we understand; it is about things we believe. It is less about the things we can know about God and more about the things that draw us to God.” —Robert Benson, In Constant Prayer

You may know right from wrong in many areas of your life, but do you know why God wants you to live a certain way? Do you know what motivates Him? Do you know how He acts and why He acts in that way? In the valley of adversity, we come to a place where our hunger and thirst to know God becomes more than just a mere “pleasure,” but a desperate need.

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. (Psalm 42:1-2 NIV)

This walk with God is so that we might learn about Him, in order that He might transform our faith. You see, God could have spared you from the pain and suffering in your life, but it was not His will, His way, or His plan for your life. He has greater things He wants to teach you, and they can only be learned through sorrow and suffering.

“We are greatly mistaken to think that religion (faith) protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence. Life is not a euphoria of unalloyed comfort and untroubled ease. Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian one must take up his cross, with all its difficulties and agonizing  and  tension packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering . . .” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

God uses our suffering to redeem and to restore. It is through His grace, which is sufficient in all things, that moves His heart to show you His ways through His Word, so that you might know and experience the great depths of His love for you. If you’re walking with God, you have the greatest Source of knowledge, love, peace, joy, and hope abiding within you. Nothing is more valuable . . . not even gold. And especially not the “thing” you’re asking Him for in life. If you’ll trust Him, one day, He’ll make you another Divine exchange: your Cross will get you a Crown . . . and you’ll have the joy of casting it at the feet of Jesus (see Revelation 4:10).

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12 NIV)

It’s hard to comprehend that the God of the universe wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with us, but since the beginning of time He’s been wooing us. Through the Bible, He has written His love letters to us, in order to draw us near to Him.

Draw near to God

and He will draw near to you.

(James 4:8 NIV)

We can’t understand and walk in God’s will if we do not learn His ways. He reveals His ways through His Word and through personal revelations, when we go to Him continually in prayer. The saints of the Bible learned the ways of God through trials and difficulties, and so must we. Pain does not serve its full purpose if we are merely alerted when it is present. Pain must hurt, so that it causes change.

God is bringing our faith to a place where we don’t desire Him only for what He gives, but for Who He is. He sees the depths of our hearts, our selfish desires, and He’ll leave us in the furnace until our hearts are ready to be made His. He’s waiting to hear our hearts pierce His with:

Make me know Your ways, O Lord;

Teach me Your paths.

Lead me in Your truth

and teach me, . . .

(Psalm 25: 4-5 NIV)

As we seek Him with humble hearts through prayer, we will find that He is truly sovereign, His ways are perfect, and His plans are always best. We may not understand why He moves things in a certain direction, but He will give us assurance that His heart is full of love for us through all the uncertainty.

Allowing God to lead and guide us through His Truth, enables us to face life without fear. But, in order to know God, we need to have a desire, commitment, and love for Him. The more we give of ourselves to Him, the more He gives of Himself to us. The more we trust Him, the more He will do for us.

Oh that My people would listen to Me,

that Israel would walk in My ways!

I would quickly subdue their enemies

and turn My hand against

their adversaries.

(Psalm 81: 13-14 NIV)

Through this Word from Him, we hear His heart crying out to Israel, and to us. He’s calling us to expand our faith . . . to take just one more step with Him. He’s asking us to trust Him. If you will, He’ll show you that He’ll do MORE than you can imagine in your life (see Ephesians 3:20). He longs for us to walk in His ways. If we could just get a glimpse of all that He has planned for us, we’d see the very best is ahead.

So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. (1 Peter 1:6 NLT)

God knows what is best for us. Only He knows what the future holds. Many times, we’re standing at the doorway of blessings, but we want our way, our desires, and our rights, and we go through the wrong door. We take the wrong path . . . and when this happens, we end up missing God’s very best. We reason within ourselves and declare, “When I can understand God and see Him, then I’ll trust Him.” But that’s not the way it works—believing is not seeing.

Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me. (John 20:29 NLT)

We can find ourselves drawing near to God, only to discover that the faith required to be in relationship with Him is wavering. Sometimes, God doesn’t move mountains; sometimes doubt creeps in because we trusted Him and His Promises, but too much time has gone by—nothing’s changed. In the words of Philip Yancey, “Our cry of ‘Where is God when it hurts?’” becomes a plea of deeper desperation . . . “Where is God when it won’t stop hurting?” Through our tears, we must be determined not to allow our feelings to govern how we view God’s ways and His goodness. We must refuse to allow anything to come between ourselves and God. We must always put our faith between us and our circumstances. Our faith must be unfaltering and our spirit steadfast. We must always view our lives through God’s Promises to us. And if you’re waiting patiently for a Promise God has made to you to unfold, don’t give up . . . He may be just about ready to roll your stone away.

We must know God, in order to trust Him. We must be dedicated in getting to know Him, so that we are prepared for the trials of life before they ever occur. We can’t forget that it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. He trusted God’s Word to Him. Though nothing was happening, He continued to obey God even when nothing in the physical world said that He should. He never asked God “Why?” He just had faith. He didn’t demand that God give him the exact date in which the flood would come. He didn’t argue with God over His ways, He just did what He was told. Day in and day out, Noah sought God. And most of all, Noah didn’t become discouraged. Noah was watchful, trusting, and patient as he waited for God’s plan to unfold. He had great faith because He walked with God. Because He walked with Him, He trusted Him, and He left all the details to the One who controlled them. If we want great faith, the faith that moves mountains . . . we must walk with God too.

As we draw near to Him and begin walking with Him in our daily lives, we find that He rarely shows us anything more about our journey than just the very next step ahead of us. If He showed us the entire map, we may get tempted to go ahead of Him. He wants to lead us, step by step, so that He can make a path to fulfill His plan. Only He has the supernatural power to change men’s hearts, take down giants in the land, and provide for our every need along the journey. We can’t anticipate what lies ahead, but we can trust that God knows. It’s your trust in Him that will build a bridge of faith that will take you from this world to the next.

When you walk,

your steps will not be hampered;

when you run, you will not stumble.

(Proverbs 4:12 NIV)

Long ago, there was such a thing as a self-opening gate which is used on country roads. It stood firm across the road as travelers approached it. If you stopped before you got to it . . . it wouldn’t open. But if you drove right at it, the wagon wheels would press the springs below the roadway and the gate would swing back to let you through. We too must press through. We must trust in God to go ahead of us in our journey. We must trust that He knows “the way we take.” We must not pay attention to the obstacle. If we come to a river, God will dry it up. If it’s a mountain, God can move it. And if He doesn’t, we can trust He’s got a better way.

God may never give us all the details behind His plans and purposes for our lives. In fact, don’t count on it. But, if you’ll seek Him, walk with Him, and obey Him, He will reveal everything you need for the very next step ahead of you. We can’t always know His will, but we can pray it. God is working, regardless of what we see. There are NO limits to what God can do. We must never calculate a situation without adding in the faithfulness of God. We can trust, through God’s Promises, that He alone sets the perimeters of our trials and will not allow us to be tried beyond the ability that He gives us to endure.

“God never allows us to face adversity longer than it takes to accomplish His purposes.” —Charles Stanley

Rest assured God knows your doubts and fears. He understands why, at times, we stumble in our faith and let doubt get the best of us. He knows the reasons we hesitate to obey . . . but none of this changes God’s mind or His ways. He conveys to you through His Word that His love for you is infinite, unconditional, and long-suffering. When you face pain and suffering, He faces it with you. When you must walk through a valley that seems to never end, He goes before you to shine Light in the darkness. Don’t try and figure God out. Don’t seek to limit God. And don’t assume what God will and will not do. These are potholes in your faith walk.

The benefits of walking with God far outweigh the risks. You’re walking with the One who is all-knowing—nothing happens outside of God’s knowledge and He is able to do the impossible. If you’re walking with God, you couldn’t be advised by anyone with more wisdom—He is all-wise. And mostly, God’s love is infinite. His love is not limited in any way. The valley of the shadow of death is just a shadow. And He’s with you. If you’ll trust Him, allowing Him to lead you step by step . . . He’s taking you somewhere. There are green pastures up ahead for you to lie down and rest. There are quiet waters to sit by as He refreshes your soul. And along the way . . . God comforts you. He’s guiding you along the right paths . . . and yes, it’s right through the valley (see Psalm 23:3).

You may not know where you’re going, but God does. You can’t always know His will, but you can trust it.

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

—Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

(Passed along to me by Ian Cron, Episcopal priest and author of Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale and Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me.)

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Chapter 3:

Hope Being Gone

What we wanted didn’t happen. What did happen, isn’t what we wanted, and hopelessness is the result. Our faith has gotten us this far, but it appears to be the end of the road. All hope seems gone. Though we trusted God was with us, we’re now feeling utterly and completely alone. Even though we believe, we doubt . . . and although we may in fact believe that God knows what He’s doing, we’re not on board with His plan.

We’ve traveled with Him a fair amount of time now in this valley, and we’re not seeing green pastures. The quiet waters that once brought us peace, now rage to flood stage—fear has set in. We’ve taken steps of faith, but it’s hard to believe that God is really in control . . . because life sure isn’t.

It appears completely obvious that we’re not in control. Helplessness has consumed us to the point that we’re paralyzed. Yet, although we’ve realized that we’re not in control, we’re not exactly convinced that God is either.  We look around to ask God some pointed questions, yet He’s nowhere to be found. Maybe He’s forgotten His Promises. Maybe He’s just not aware of what’s going on. There has to be some explanation for His lack of intervention. We’ve waited in faith, but nothing’s changed. Nothing’s gotten better. And our “not yet” seems to have become a “not ever.” There no longer appears to be a reason for hope.

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping . . . And Abraham’s faith did not weaken . . . He never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, he grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God was able to do whatever he promises. (Romans 4:18-25 NLT)

When the storms of life become catastrophic, and the winds of adversity keep us from standing, we’re looking for anything and everything to hold on to. To keep our vessel from being lost at sea, we could use our anchor—hope. But that anchor, too, is drifting; in fact it even seems to be pulling us into hopelessness.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:19 NIV)

IT’S HOPELESS

We’ve trusted that God works all things for good, yet things have gotten worse. We were walking with Him, but He’s suddenly walked off. Hopelessness sets in as a result. But God is always at work. He uses ALL things . . . even hopelessness.

We can rest assured that this hopeless place is just a stop along our journey. God’s using it to get our full attention. (We begrudgingly agree that He’s got it!) The Truth is that hopeless situations are allowed by God. Hopelessness helps us to realize that we need God’s help.

The pages of the Bible are filled with events that are completely hopeless. We can look at Noah, Moses, David, and even Jesus. (Not to mention the hopeless situations of all those that Jesus healed.) Our hopelessness is part of our journey, not our final destination. Hopelessness opens our eyes that we should pursue God to a greater degree. Anything that draws us near to God is good for us. And often, our hopeless condition is where we tend to experience God the most.

. . . strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God,’ they said. (Acts 14:22 NIV)

Like it or not, hopeless situations are the true test of our faith. The questions that beg answers are: “Will we stand firm in our faith and cling to what God has promised in His Word? Or will we allow our circumstances to dictate our faith in Him?” And listen, it’s not that God needs to know the answers . . . He wants you to know them. He’s using hopelessness to bring things to the surface. You may have been confident in your faith, but God saw something that needed working on.

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12 NLT)

We try desperately to create our own hope. We look for things to hope in and hope for . . . we lose track of the One in which hope comes from. Hope is the result of clinging to God despite the seeming hopelessness of our situation.

Though he slay me,

yet will I hope in him.

(Job 13:15 NIV)

Hopelessness has a way of stripping life down to the essentials. We tend to grasp what really matters in life when we’re hopeless. Seems God really does know what He’s doing. (We just wish there were another way.) These times of helplessness show us that we have our hope in the wrong places. In our darkest days and hardest nights, we come to understand our need for TRUE hope. Without hope in God, life loses its meaning and our heart gets sick.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick. (Proverbs 13:12 NIV)

It’s our heart’s sickness that causes us to realize we need the Great Physician to heal us. Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.” (Mark 2:17 NIV) Jesus came to bind up our broken hearts (see Isaiah 61:1) and give us hope. But, we need to realize that we’re sick. We have to want to be healed.

Through our desperate need for healing and hope, we come to grips with the fact that there are things we can’t control, things that are not for us to control, and we’re reminded that God is God and we are not. (Thank God for that!)

When we’re struggling to survive, God has found a place where He can thrive. Sometimes, He allows us to experience extreme weakness and despair, just so we can experience His supernatural strength. As we’re struggling to understand the ways of God, He reminds us that sometimes there is no other explanation for our pain and suffering, than just so that He might bring glory to Himself and strengthen our faith and the faith of others. Sometimes, we’re broken, just so God can heal us. Such was the case with the blind man—it might be the case with you.

As Jesus and His Disciples traveled, they came across a man who was blind. His Disciples thought it a good opportunity to try to understand the ways of God and ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” His reply was not what they were expecting. They got more than they bargained for—a miracle. Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (see John 9: 1-12) Sometimes things happen for reasons that can only be known to God. Often, we must live with circumstances that bring no understanding for years, even decades, and possibly never on this side of eternity. Though it is impossible to understand the dynamic ways of God, we can trust in the One who heals us. He has reasons for all He does and all He allows. Besides, He knows that knowing the answer as to exactly “why” He permits specific sufferings, wouldn’t change anything anyway—truly, would knowing the reasons take away even one ounce of the pain you’re enduring? He didn’t think so.

God can do anything, but what He really wants to do is make your heart His. He wants to heal your brokenness in a way that changes your life forever. He wants to transform your tragedy into triumph and give you beauty for your ashes (see Isaiah 61:3). And like it or not, He’ll stop at nothing to do His job. If He doesn’t change your situation . . . He’ll change you! And He’s famously known for doing both.

Despite the apparent hopelessness in our lives, real hope comes from faith in God. God is committed to work within His children through every circumstance. He is less concerned about our comfort and more interested in developing our character. If changing our circumstances will hinder our character development, we can be sure that God is in no hurry to change them. Hope will be born out of our trust in God, as He works within us. If we’ll allow Him to, He will transform our lives through making us humble, teach us to surrender every circumstance to His care and accept the situations He has allowed in our lives, and enable us to walk obediently into the blessings He has in store for us.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV)

Things may “seem” hopeless, but absolutely nothing is truly hopeless when you’re trusting God. Trust His hand and trust His watch. Grab hold of His Promises and don’t let go!

You have a ticket to heaven

no thief can take,

an eternal home no divorce

can break.

Every sin of your life

has been cast to the sea.

Every mistake you’ve made

is nailed to the tree.

You’re blood-bought

and heaven-made.

A Child of God-forever saved.

So be grateful, joyful—for isn’t it true?

What you don’t have

is much less than what you do.

—Max Lucado, A Love Worth Giving

Though we’re told by God that He is everything we need, we’re just not exactly sure we believe that. If we did have all we need, why do we have moments of darkness that sweep over us in the midst of our faith?

Why am I discouraged?

Why is my heart so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise Him again—

my Savior and my God!

Now I am deeply discouraged,

but I will remember you . . .

(Psalm 42:5-6 NLT)

Hopelessness in the hands of God is a means by which God alerts our hearts that our faith will not stand the test of time, nor the trials of life, if we are not intimate with Him, trusting in Him fully, and constantly fleeing into His presence.

WHY PRAY?

In our hopelessness, we desperately need to hear from God. We’re certain that He’s left us, yet His Word says He never leaves us forsakes us, so if He’s not there . . . we have to ask ourselves, “Who moved?” We wonder where God’s gone, but fail to recognize that He’s right where we left Him. Quite possibly, it wasn’t God that walked away from our daily walk . . . maybe we did.

God knows we’ll lose sight of Him as we journey this life; there are many distractions, but He’s given us a special privilege as His children . . . He’s given us prayer. And prayer is powerful. It allows us to cast our burdens on God and receive His grace, guidance, and provision. With such ready access to Almighty God, it’s a wonder why we ever try to do anything in life without Him.

If we’re willing to surrender our will to His and seek Him earnestly, He will respond. We might not get the answer we wanted, but we can be assured that it’s for our best. We either trust Him, or we don’t. We either believe He is for us, or He’s not; if we’re not sure, we should ask Him . . . through prayer.

“We stand tallest

and strongest on our knees.”

—Charles Stanley

When we pray, we are recognizing that God is Sovereign over the universe; we’re acknowledging that God is in absolute control of all things.

The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything. (Psalm 103:19 NLT)

Prayer moves the heart and hand of God when we acknowledge Him as Almighty God. But, He’s not just a loving God . . . He’s a holy God. His holiness demands justice and it is prayer that helps us to recognize that we fall short of God’s absolute holiness. We quickly come to realize that we should approach Him with reverence and awe. Through prayer, we’re looking to God instead of ourselves . . . we’re declaring Him Lord of our life, not just Savior.

Though we’d love to just bust through the gates of heaven and approach God’s throne of grace on our own, we’re not allowed to. God has deemed Jesus as the “go to” person. And if we must come to Jesus, then we must face our sin. So, each and every time we come before God in prayer, He only hears us when we’ve confessed our sin and asked for forgiveness. We can pray:

Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)

You see, this journey is going to be a long one in many aspects—incredibly short in others. We can’t possibly go the distance with excess baggage. We need to QUICKLY rid ourselves of the sin which causes us to struggle through the journey. Purity of heart and the power of God are connected . . . prayer makes them possible.

If we’ll confess and repent, and forgive others, God promises to hear us. And it’s our unceasing prayer that brings about deliverance.

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. (Luke 18:7-8 NIV)

Yet, as we pray, instead of praying about the things that break our heart, we need to focus upon the things that break His. Too often, when we pray, we’ve failed to pray as we’ve been instructed to—“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.” Our privilege of prayer becomes our greatest failure. People all over the world recite the Lord’s Prayer daily, and yet, have no intention of anyone’s will being done, but their own. We’re praying not that God’s will be done, but that He approves ours.

We must be committed to constant prayer while rejoicing in hope by trusting in His Promises.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12 NIV)

It is through prayer that we invite God into our world, so that He might lead, guide, and direct us each and every moment of our lives. Our privilege in prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him.

Through prayer, we may receive the answer we were hoping for, and we may not. It’s all about God’s will. And if we trust Him, then we can accept His answer . . . no matter what that is. And if we can’t . . . then we don’t have a prayer problem, we have a faith problem. We may need to go back to the basics . . . the reason for our hope. We may need to spend more time with God. It may take thirty two chapters of our lives, as it did with Job. But, as Job learned, it was necessary to take his case to God. And in the end, just like Job, we find that it’s our response to the trials of our lives, when all the props of faith are removed, that will either prove our faith or disprove it. And don’t despair, life gets tough, we make mistakes, and our faith falters . . . even God’s most loyal believers have moments of hopelessness and despair that overtakes them.

Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. (Job 23:2 NIV)

Don’t worry, God is ready to listen. And at the right time, He’ll speak. He’s interested in what you have to say to Him. He won’t interrupt you . . . He’ll wait until you’re finished pouring out your heart. But, when He speaks, you’ll realize the privilege of prayer is, in itself, its own miracle. Truly, what you’ll find is that you have everything you need. You can have hope because God is hope himself.

You have a God who hears you,

the power of love behind you,

the Holy Spirit within you,

and all of heaven ahead of you.

If you have the Shepherd,

you have grace for every sin,

direction for every turn,

a candle for every corner,

and an anchor for every storm.

You have everything you need.

—Max Lucado, Traveling Light

HOPING IN FAITH

When difficulties come, when the trials of life invite themselves into our lives unwelcomed (they will: see John 16:33), we can usually get through a few days, even maybe a few months; but as the trial lingers, our faith begins to fail and hope starts to fade. Our problems appear to be even too big for God.

We’re told to remember Abraham . . . “all hope being gone, hoped in faith.”  There is always hope in Christ. When all hope seems gone, there’s the Cross . . . and it points us to where we need to be looking—up.

In our hopelessness, we must set aside feelings and get back to the facts of our faith. We must draw near to God over and over again . . . and He will restore our hope. Through our prayers, God helps us to see our problems from His perspective.

“Faith means believing in advance

what will only make sense in reverse.”

—Philip Yancey

He may be using your situation of suffering to prepare you to be a comfort to others (see 2 Corinthians 1:4). It’s about His will, His glory, and His purposes for good.

“In Augustine’s Confessions, He says, ‘What is it therefore, that goes on with the soul, since it takes greater delight if things that it loves are found or restored to it than if it had always possessed them?’ Augustine proceeds to mention a victorious general who experiences the greatest satisfaction when the danger is greatest, a seafarer who exults in calm seas after a violent storm, and a sick man who upon recovery walks with a joy he had never known before his illness. ‘Everywhere a greater joy is preceded by a greater suffering.’” —Philip Yancey, Where is God When it Hurts? (quoting and paraphrasing Augustine from Augustine’s Confessions)

It’s incredibly clear that our times of disappointment are meant to draw us closer to God; to help us to understand our desperate need for the Savior He sent. His desire is to create a greater faith, deeper love, and an unshakable trust to carry you through the journey. All the while, His loving hands hold you up and reassure you that He will never leave. He surrounds you with His unfailing love and embraces you continually with His grace. God has an eternal purpose for allowing you to go through every trial that you face. He wastes nothing . . . especially pain. You can be confident in His promises:

So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great rewards it brings you! (Hebrews 10:35 NLT)

Trials of life take their toll, tragedies can bring us to our knees, and disappointment can linger indefinitely, but through Christ, we can face everything that comes our way in knowing that there is an eternal reason for the circumstances in our lives. We must go to God in prayer and ask Him to help us respond correctly, receive His love through the pain, and remain strong in our faith—we must trust Him completely. We must be determined, to fight the good fight of faith (see 1 Timothy 6:12), trust that His ways are higher, and grasp the fact that they are also better. Hold fast, God’s love prevails.

“To those going through the valley of the shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights . . . and in the darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper—‘I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.’

Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail, his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world.” -David Wilkerson (His last words that he posted on his blog on the morning that he was tragically and suddenly killed in a car accident. Truly, our loss and heaven’s gain.)

Know this: Trusting God will cost you “something.” It may be pride, selfishness, wrong attitudes, addictions, lust for life, or whatever else keeps you from being in right relationship with Him. But there is a Divine exchange—In return . . . you get peace.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)

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Chapter 4:

Perfect Peace

We long for it more than anything else, though our soul will rarely recognize it. Our spirit yearns, but rarely obtains what we need the most—Peace. Through our trials and tribulations, our soul is pushed and pulled between the very little we know and the great unknowns of life. If we’ll stop long enough to listen, God’s silence is calling us—from the mountaintop, where He stands waiting for us. He wants to give us a glimpse of the valley from a different vantage point.

We’re looking for Him to speak and act through a windstorm that sweeps away our fears, or by shaking our world and putting things into place. Perhaps it would be fitting for Him to appear in a fire from heaven that consumes our pain and suffering, leaving us with peace. But it doesn’t happen that way. Amid all the chaos, He whispers.

Go out and stand before me on the mountain,’ the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were turned loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-13 NLT)

Life is unpredictable—so is God. (Although, as you get to know His ways, His overall plan is always the same: Redemption and Refinement.) In the midst of job loss, terminal illness, broken relationships, and fear of the unexpected, God wants to give us peace. Instead of the thing we want, He gives us what we need—supernatural tranquility that is unchanging through our valleys of life.

The peace that God gives is not as the world gives. It’s not happiness. We go looking for peace in all the wrong places. We think we’ve found it, only to lose it again. When we’re walking in darkness, we have no hope of having any peace at all.

They have not learned

the path of peace.

(Romans 3:17 ISV)

Through our pursuit of God, we stumble across a path . . . a path to peace. But, it wasn’t the way we were expecting to go. We had determined our own way through this life, yet God is leading us quite another. Once again, God shows us the way and leaves the decision to us. We’ve come to a fork in the road along our journey and we must trust in His ways and realize that He never leads us anywhere that He cannot keep us. If He’s leading us into a valley, He’ll walk with us and provide all that we need to make it through. He not only wants us to take this journey with Him through valleys of adversity, but He wants us to experience His peace through it.

This path to peace comes through trusting Him. It’s being content with not knowing exactly what will happen in the future, but trusting God to take care of us no matter what lies ahead. The exchange, once again is Divine—we surrender fear and anxiety and He will give us peace.

But it’s not that easy, is it? We need “to know.” We reason that if we just “knew” what our future held, we’d be able to have some peace in life. We’d be able to settle our hearts and minds and focus on the present. Yet, deep down, we know it doesn’t work that way, and so does God. He emphatically commands us not to lean on our own understanding. It’s far too limited. His ways are far better than ours. Whatever we could devise doesn’t even compare to His will.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. (Proverbs 3:5-7 NIV)

Reasoning, struggling, and trying to figure out everything in life will steal your peace. We must stop trying to figure out God and how He will work everything out in our lives . . . in order to have peace, we have to stop worrying.

WINNING OVER WORRY

It’s been said that “Worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.” Worry can get the best of us. It consumes our lives and leaves us continually desperate and hopeless. Here’ the truth about worry (according to Psychology research):

40% of our worries are about

events that will never happen

30% of our worries are about

events that have already happened

22% of our worries are about

trivial events

4% of our worries are about

events we cannot change

4% of our worries are about

real events on which we can act

So, the bottom line is that 96% of what we worry about . . . we have no control over. That equates to “wasted” time. And we simply don’t have time to waste in this in life. With that in mind, we need to remind ourselves of the truth about worry—worry has NEVER solved a problem.

Jesus asked an interesting question:

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matthew 6:27 NLT)

It’s a question that begs an answer in our lives. And the answer is obviously rhetorical. We must realize that Jesus isn’t trying to insult us by asking such a ridiculous question . . . He asked it to convict our hearts and turn us toward God. He asked because our worrying is taking us in the wrong direction—in the sight of God, worry is a sin. It’s a sin because the root of our worrying is unbelief. And as hard as that is to accept, it is Truth. Just take a look at Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:25 (NIV):

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

His command is no different than those of the Ten Commandments. “Do not” are strong words. There’s no need for interpretation. There’s no chance of misinterpretation. And if God tells us not to do something . . . it is with good reason. Our worrying is clear evidence of our lack of faith in Him. If we’re trusting in God completely . . . there should never be a need to worry. We hear Jesus’ words pierce through our sin once more in Matthew 6:28-30 (NLT):

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, . . . And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

His words, at first, seem condemning, but in reality, they are freeing. Through those words, Jesus is telling us some things that are profound and powerful to our lives. He’s showing us the way to peace.

First and foremost, we must recognize worry as a sin. We need to continually confess our sins. We can have no peace while we are harboring un–confessed sin. Jesus commands us not to worry three times in verses 25, 31, and 34 of Matthew chapter 6, so that means worry is disobedience to God. He’s telling us we don’t have to worry. We have a choice. He’s showing us that we can take responsibility for our sin and turn from it. If we’ll confess our sin of worry, God will give us peace that will guard our hearts and minds. And that’s what we need. Peace that will protect us from the chaos of life.

Do not worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT)

Instead of worrying, we’re commanded to pray. It’s when we pray, when we seek God and His Promises, we learn that we CAN trust Him. If we say we believe, then we must live as though we do. We must trust God instead of living like He doesn’t exist. You see, worry is not our problem . . . our lack of faith is. Our worry is a denial of God’s love, power, and wisdom. As hard as it is to accept, in God’s great love and wisdom, He’s brought us to the very place that we are crying out for mercy. In times of doubt and despair, when worry gets the best of us, we can cling to God’s Promises that will not return void.

It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. (Isaiah 55:11 NLT)

God has given us incredible Promises by which to build the foundation of our life upon, yet we tend to “lean unto our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all of our hearts.” Amid the crises of our lives, we give into worry.

Though we rarely feel as though our prayers are even making it to the gates of heaven, we tend to keep praying . . . but we forget to start praising. Praise turns our doubt to faith and eliminates the worry. Our praise says, “God has accomplished it.” Praise tells God that we worship Him for who He is, not just what He gives. We can’t praise Him and worry at the same time. We have to learn to step aside and believe that God can accomplish more in our lives than we ever can. We need to give Him the benefit of the doubt and realize He more than likely knows what He’s doing. If He’s working, then we can rest.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

Rest, that’s what we desperately need. We need to stop “trying” and simply start “trusting.”

“Turn all your worries over to God.

He’s going to be up all night anyway.”

—Mary C. Crowley

“Worry is interest paid

on trouble before it comes due.”

—William Ralph Inge

“Any concern too small to be turned

into a prayer is too small

to be made into a burden.”

—Corrie ten Boom

“Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.” —Author Unknown

“For peace of mind,

resign as general manager

of the universe.” —Author Unknown

“Don’t be afraid of tomorrow;

for God is already there.”

—Author Unknown

We can say all we want about worry . . . worry still tends to get the best of us. But there’s a reason. We have an enemy. And the moment you declare your trust in God, he’ll show up at your front door step, eager to come inside . . . often he’ll barge right in—an uninvited guest.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

Your enemy is not a person, the circumstances of your life, or God; your enemy is Satan himself. The sooner you acknowledge his existence, the sooner you’ll be able to fight in the battlefield of faith—the real battle. Like it or not, you’re in a battle for your soul. But, it’s not flesh and blood you’re up against. Your battle is with spiritual forces in a heavenly realm.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)

Each time you make the decision to trust God in your life, you will find the devil knocking at your door. You might assume he’d devour you in weakness . . . but he pays no attention to those who are his; he’s interested in those who are a threat to his power. If you’ve developed unshakable faith, you can be certain the enemy is going to try and shake you.

He knows that it’s by faith that God’s power is released, souls are saved, and every Promise of God is obtained. He knows that when we surrender to the Lord, our weakness turns to strength and we become courageous in the battle. “The enemy knows full well that faith sustains those who possess it.” (—David Wilkerson)

We’re warned throughout Scripture of our enemy and how he works. We’re alerted that in the battle of faith, we will be tempted to cast aside our faith. When life gets hard and the battle grows intense . . . we’ll be tempted to leave the path of Truth and go our own way.

They have left the

path of truth.

(2 Timothy 2:18 NLT)

The enemy approaches your faith subtly. He begins to speak lies of defeat into your life and then convinces you that there is no hope. He’s out to destroy your faith because you’ve set your heart on truly trusting the Lord. So, instead of making himself obvious, he knows it’s wise to invite you to a cup of coffee to chat a while. (He doesn’t want to make his tactics too obvious.) The conversation seems reasonable, as he even appears to make sense.

He’ll try to convince you that there is no way out of your situation . . . that things are going from bad to worse and you have to do something. “Besides,” he says, “You’ve waited long enough on God and He just isn’t showing up.” He goes on to show you that you just don’t possess “enough” faith to get you through your valley. In a moment of Truth, you recall the words of Jesus,

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20 NLT)

Someone’s lying. But the enemy asks, “Well, has the mountain moved?” It’s hard to argue with that when you’re still in financial distress, you’re child has only days to live in the hospital, or your spouse continues to travel a road of addictions. In fact, it seems the devil knows what he’s talking about—God isn’t showing up. As he sees he’s got your attention, he takes his tactics one step further and poses the idea that it’s actually God that is causing your heartache. He asks aloud, “What kind of loving God allows you to go through the pain and suffering you’re going through?” Then, in your silence, he starts to bring to your mind all of the Christians who have claimed to trust God but who suffer terrible tragedies, sickness, and even death. He grabs at your weakness that he senses and candidly asks, “What makes you think that God is going to answer your prayers?” Now he knows he’s got you. So, he offers you a deal.

He convinces you that you are suffering unjustly and that he alone can fix it all for you—If you’ll just walk with him a while . . . he’ll prove it to you. He’ll show you the way of escape. You’ll find peace, though temporary. His short-term plan is a long-term tragedy. Yet, you’ll never know it, until that sad day when you realize you’ve been lied to.

for there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NLT)

When our pain and suffering is prolonged and our soul grows weary, we’re easily persuaded by the devil’s lies. He works to keep us hopeless and steal our peace and joy. The enemy comes into our life for good reason—to steal, kill, and destroy.

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

(John 10:10 NLT)

If he can’t steal your joy, and your salvation is sealed, then he’ll work diligently to kill and destroy your peace. He prowls around in your life, just waiting to devour you.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . . And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:8-10 NIV)

The Truth is that we’re told many times in Scripture that we will suffer. There will be trials and tribulations in this life (see John 16:33). Yet, in Christ, we are MORE than conquerors (see Romans 8:37). The reward of trusting Him far outweighs the risks. We must hold on to Truth at all times, in order to withstand the attacks of the enemy. And although we may fight him off for a time, we can be certain he’ll return at a more opportune moment.

When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. (Luke 4:13 NLT)

Be ready. Know Truth, so you can detect the lies. When you grow weary in the battle, rely on Christ’s strength . . . not your own. While the enemy is in pursuit of you, you must be in pursuit of peace.

Let him turn away from evil . . . seek peace and pursue it. (1 Peter 3:11 ESV)

BY FAITH

Our foundation of all peace is our faith in God. Our peace with God and in God is found only by our faith in Christ.

Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1 NKJV)

If we don’t have peace, then what we know in our head has not made it to our heart. If we don’t have peace, we must pursue Jesus . . . it’s Jesus that holds the key to our peace. It is through our faith in His life, death, and resurrection, that we have our peace with God. Through our peace with God, we find the true peace we need to persevere through any circumstance.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27 NIV)

When we have peace, we have no fear. When we fear God, we have no reason to fear anything else. If we fear only the Lord, He will keep us safe (see Isaiah 8:12-14). True peace comes from Christ alone. As we learn to trust in God’s Word on how to experience His peace, we come to understand that by faith we believe that God is sovereign, He loves us unconditionally, He works all things for good, and He is a ready help in times of trouble. Through our surrender, we find unshakable peace—peace that is unflinching and unwavering. When we’re experiencing true peace through our faith in God, we’re content and steadfast and we’re anxious for nothing. If we trust in God, we find that the peace that rules in our hearts can calm any of life’s storms.

“To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken; to keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice, and where seems no hearing; to see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved, caring for no life, nor shifting a hair-breadth for all entreaty, and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving; to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand; to wait patiently, ready to die of hunger, fearing only lest faith should fail—such is the victory that overcometh the world, such is faith indeed.” —George MacDonald

His peace can carry us through any valley. In every circumstance, God’s peace through His grace proves to be enough. We must be committed to casting every care into His hands, trusting that He alone will handle it best. We must continually choose to trust God, even when there appears to be no evidence that we should. Faith doesn’t walk by sight, but trusts God at His Word and walks forward with confidence and assured hope. And “when we don’t understand . . . when we can’t see His plan . . . when we can’t trace His hand . . . we can trust His heart.”

Trust His Heart- by Babbie Mason

All things work for our good

Though sometimes we don’t see

how they could

Struggles that break our hearts in two

Sometimes blind us to the truth

Our Father knows what’s best for us

His ways are not our own

So when your pathway grows dim,

and you can’t see Him

Remember you’re never alone

God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don’t understand

When you can’t see His plan

When you can’t trace His hand

Trust His heart

He sees the master plan

And He holds the future in His hands

So don’t live as those who have no hope

All our hope is found in Him

We see the present clearly

But He sees the first and the last

And like a tapestry He’s weaving you

and me to someday be just like Him

He alone is faithful and true

He alone knows what is best for you

So when you don’t understand

When you don’t see His plan

When you can’t trace His hand

Trust his heart.

Quite frankly, we may never understand even parts of His plan. Only rarely do we see His fingerprints from day to day or His faithful footprints in the sands of life. Most often, we can only know His ways through trusting His heart. And in the end, it is God alone who will keep you in perfect and constant peace.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3 ESV)

In our darkest hour, when it seems as though the sun will never rise, we must never quit crying out to the Lord. Your faith in God says that you believe in Him more than you believe in your job loss, your divorce, your addicted spouse, or your cancer. If you’re not delivered “from” your “thorn,” you’ll be delivered THROUGH it. If He doesn’t change your circumstances, He’ll change you to be more like Christ . . . and THAT is a miracle!

We must be assured through our faith that when God allows, brings, or orchestrates circumstances in our lives, regardless of the relationships, influences, factors, and decisions involved, God knows about every single possible scenario. God tracks all the implications of all that happens in you, through you, and around you. He is sovereign.

God has His ways. We might not think they are better, but they are. We might not think He knows what He’s doing, but He does. Our problem is that we’re looking for a quick spiritual transaction that gives us what we want, instead of a spiritual transformation that reaches into eternity. We have a God “On Demand” mentality: We want Him around when we need him, but would like Him to stay out of the way the rest of the time. You see, it’s our difficulties, our valleys, our storms of life that reveal what kind of faith and hope we have. God wants to work within us, because if we’ll let Him, He knows the joys that are in store for us in the end. And remember: everything will work out in the end . . . if it’s not working out, it’s not the end.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18 NIV)

If you’re walking with God, the journey isn’t over just because you hit a bump in the road and get a flat tire. The story of your life is still being written, but when you’re trusting in Jesus, if you’re letting Him write, you’re assured a far different ending (and far better) than any you were ever expecting.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 NIV)

The truth is, when it comes to trusting God, there are no easy answers. In fact, sometimes, there are no answers at all.

I called him but he gave no answer.

(Song of Solomon 5:6 NIV)

But, sometimes God wants us living within our unanswered questions. Sometimes He simply wants us waiting, hoping, and praying. The silent Savior is also the one who saves.

As we resolve to the fact that God is in control, we also grasp that although things may get better, they also may get much worse. We wonder “how long” the pain will last . . . and we don’t know. We wonder “why” we’re going through such devastating storms of life . . . and there is not an answer. We want to know if God is with us . . . finally we have a reply:

And be sure of this: I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20 NIV)

As we seek a God who loves us and yearns to be gracious to us, we must trust that through His love, one day our faith will win over doubt . . . light will break through darkness . . . and love will defeat all else and everything in between—one day we will see our Redeemer face to face (see Job 19:25). Though we can’t understand His ways entirely, we can trust in them completely.

“Trust is what we need

when we don’t have understanding.”

—Pastor Matt Chandler

If you’re stuck in a place where your heart is just not realizing what your head understands, ask yourself this question:

“What would you do if you were

absolutely confident God was with you?”

—Pete Wilson, Plan B

In times of affliction, when your faith is struggling through the doubt, stop to receive and believe in the love your Heavenly Father has for you. Accept it as Truth, instead of believing all the lies. He has calmed greater waters than yours. He’s brought down higher mountains than the ones that stand before you.

In the valley of your life, God is proving your faith—not for Him, but for you. You need to know where you stand with God—it’s vital. Though we cry out for “one more” sign, “one more” miracle, “one more” Word to get us through . . . God, in His silence, is teaching us to trust Him in ways we never thought we could or would.

Let me prove, I pray thee,

but this once with the fleece.

(Judges 6:39 NKJV)

There are degrees to our faith. In the beginning of our walk with God, we aren’t concerned with our spiritual growth . . . we just want signs and miracles. Like Gideon (see Judges 6), we give God “tests.” At times, God gives us what we need, in order to grow our faith in this way; at other times, when He doesn’t, He’s telling us that we’re ready to move on in our faith. He’s moving us from infantile stage into a more mature faith. If He leaves us where we are now, our faith will be imperfect . . . and He’s promised to perfect our faith, remember? (You read that Promise only three pages ago . . . see Hebrews 12:2)

We’re always looking for a “feeling” from God, some token of Him besides His Word. We can know that we are walking stronger in our faith and closer with the Lord when we trust Him . . . without any evidence that we should. When the mountains aren’t moving, when the giant still stands before us—ready to take us down, and when the Jordan River is at flood stage with no way to cross into the Promised Land . . . faith and trust in God gives us the strength to take the next step, even when all human reason urges us to the contrary.

Once again, Paul shows us how to trust God, regardless of what we “see.” He urges us to walk by faith and not by sight.

The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone. (Acts 27:20 NLT)

In the midst of fear and uncertainty, Paul rose up to encourage the others:

So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith (complete confidence) in God that it will be exactly as it was told to me; (Acts 27:25 AMP)

Paul wasn’t holding on to his circumstances, He was holding on to God. He trusted Him . . . and so must we. There is no other way for the mountain to move, the seas to be parted, the giants to be taken down, or the raging storm to be calmed. All other ways will be proven a failure in the long term. It’s God’s way or our own . . . it’s our choice. It’s when all hope seems gone, that God is giving our faith the opportunity to infinitely grow. Take that chance. You won’t regret it.

When is the time to trust?

Is it when all is calm,

When waves the victor’s palm,

And life is one glad psalm

Of joy and praise?

Nay! But the time to trust

Is when the waves beat high,

When storm clouds fill the sky,

And prayer is one long cry,

O help and save!

When is the time to trust?

Is it when friends are true?

Is it when comforts woo,

And in all we say and do

We meet but praise?

Nay! But the time to trust

Is when we stand alone,

And summer birds have flown,

And every prop is gone,

All else but God.

What is the time to trust?

Is it some future day,

When you have tried your way

And learned to trust and pray

By bitter woe?

Nay! But the time to trust

Is in this moment’s need,

Poor, broken, bruised reed!

Poor, troubled soul, make speed

To trust thy God.

What is the time to trust?

Is it when hopes beat high,

When sunshine gilds the sky,

And joy and ecstasy

Fill all the heart?

Nay! But the time to trust

Is when our joy is fled,

When sorrow bows the head,

And all is cold and dead,

All else but God.

—L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert

Trust that He is for you, even when everything appears to be coming against you (see Romans 8:31). Never stop praying and crying out to God, even when it seems that He’s not listening—He is. And when you can’t seem to find any hope, encourage yourself with the Promises that He’s made to you. God hasn’t made ONE Promise He won’t keep.

Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life in your ways. (“your word”-NIV) (Psalm 119:37 ESV)

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your word has revived me. (Psalm 119:50 NASB)

It is God who will make your way perfect, if you’ll trust in His ways. When there is no other hope in this world, when you’re at wits’ end and your world is falling apart at the seams . . . Trust God—no matter what.

.

But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord

their hope and confidence.

Jeremiah 17:7 NLT

.

SCRIPTURE PROMISES

TO ENCOURAGE YOUR FAITH

God is our refuge and strength,

A very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear,

though the earth should change

And though the mountains

slip into the heart of the sea;

Though its waters roar and foam,

Though the mountains quake

at its swelling pride.

There is a river whose streams

make glad the city of God,

The holy dwelling places

of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her,

she will not be moved;

God will help her

when morning dawns . . .

He raised His voice, the earth melted.

The LORD of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

(Psalm 46:1-7 NASB)

It is God who arms me

with strength

and makes my way perfect.

(2 Samuel 22:33 NIV)

The Lord gives strength to his people;

the Lord blesses his people with peace.

(Psalm 29:11 NIV)

Blessed are those

whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

(Psalm 84:5 NIV)

He is not afraid of bad news,

his heart is firm

trusting in the Lord.

(Psalm 112:7 ESV)

When they hurled insults at him,

he did not retaliate;

when he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself

to the one who judges justly.

(1 Peter 2:23 NIV)

“This is my command-

be strong and courageous!

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

For the Lord your God is with you

wherever you go.”

(Joshua 1:9 NLT)

Now all glory to God, who is able,

through his mighty power

at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more

than we might ask or think.

(Ephesians 3:20 NLT)

Show me your ways, Lord,

teach me your paths.

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

(Psalm 25: 4-5 NIV)

In his kindness God called you

to his eternal Glory

by means of Jesus Christ.

After you have suffered a little while,

he will restore, support,

and strengthen you,

and he will place you on

a firm foundation.

All power is his forever and ever. Amen.

(1 Peter 5:10-11 NLT)

In quietness

and in trusting confidence

I find strength.

(Isaiah 30: 15 NLT)

So humble yourselves

under the mighty power of God,

and in his good time he will honor you.

Give all your worries and cares to God,

for he cares about what happens to you.

(1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT)

I wait quietly before God,

for my hope is in him.

(Psalm 62: 5 NLT)

Be glad for all God is planning for you.

Be patient in trouble,

and always be prayerful.

(Romans 12:12 NLT)

.

BONUS FEATURE:

1st Chapter of

BE STILL

Let Jesus Calm Your Storms

Cherie Hill

.

Praise for Be Still

“With this detailed study of the incident of Jesus calming the storm, Cherie Hill has not only brought new light to a familiar Gospel story, she has showed us how to both weather and grow from our personal storms. ‘Be Still’ is a healing balm to the soul. My best advice—get this book, use it, and buy another one for your best friend!”

—Jim Thomson, M.A., LCPC, author and speaker.

“Be Still is a wealth of Scripture that readers can return to again and again for encouragement in the midst of trials. Be Still is not a book that you read once, put on your bookshelf, and then forget about. It’s a book that doesn't promise quick fixes, or endless sunshine. Instead, it is a lifeline attached to God's Word, designed to help the reader find peace in the midst of each and every storm that comes their way.”

—Deborah Porter, writer, editor, and radio talk show host.

"Be Still—Let Jesus Calm Your Storms combines intellectual common sense, Biblical scriptures, and an author dedicated to helping people who have suffering in their lives. If you are currently going through a storm, this book can definitely help you through it. Buy a copy for yourself, buy a copy for a friend, or leave a copy somewhere for a stranger.”

—Dan Blankenship, author of “The Running Girl.”

“The book nicely bridges the gap between those who doubt God because there are storms and the true lessons to be drawn from those storms. One of the best parts of this book is the way the author explores creating both inner and outer peace. Many people are more troubled in their minds than they are in reality; this book can help.”

—Donald M. Mitchell, Amazon.com top 10 Reviewer, Harvard Graduate, author, and CEO featured in Forbes Magazine.

“Be Still, Let Jesus Calm Your Storms, by Cherie Hill, is an inspiring book that Christians, as well as all individuals who are seeking peace in a chaotic world, will find to be ‘life-changing.’ Regardless of where readers are in their walk with God, the words of the author and her use of Scripture to support her advice and encouragement will enable them to understand much more about faith and how it is the path that gives peace of mind in all situations.”

—Bettie Corbin Tucker, Publisher, IP book reviewer, former radio talk show host, and published author.

“I can highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a fulfilling life purpose. Cherie Hill has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and has a Certificate in Biblical Counseling, but her greatest accomplishment is making a difference in the lives of people who are in need of human caring, a few warm words of encouragement and an open heart.”

—Rebecca Johnson, Amazon.com top 10 Reviewer.

.

.

BE STILL

Let Jesus Calm Your Storms

Cherie Hill

© 2010 by Cherie Hill

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

Scripture quotations marked "The Amplified Bible" (AMP) or "The Amplified New Testament" are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation and The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, Wheaton: Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV®) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked "NLT" are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from The New King James Version / Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., Copyright © 1982. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

.

This book is dedicated to God…

the perfect author of my life.

My greatest joy is just in

“knowing” You.

Thank you for teaching me

to “Be Still.”

Most of all, thank you for loving me

enough to use my life according

to Your purposes.

Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Storm

Chapter 1: Purpose in the Storm

Chapter 2: Where are You in the Boat?

Chapter 3: Lord, Don’t You Care?

Chapter 4: Where is Your Faith?

Chapter 5: Resting with Jesus

God’s Word On…

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Preface

I would like to take a moment to explain exactly how this book was inspired and why I believe it can deeply change your life.

As a born again Christian, I began asking God to give my life purpose and fill me in a way that the world could not. I needed something that was eternal and meaningful. And well, God answered me. I believe that God has always had a plan for me, yet it was only when I finally reached out to Him that He revealed His purpose for my life. God began to show me all of the “spiritual gifts” that He had given to me. He gave me insight as to how all of my life experiences had strengthened and developed those gifts.

You see, I have always been a good listener. For some reason, people have always felt more than comfortable revealing their most intimate problems in their lives to me. I never understood why complete strangers would open up and express their deepest pains and “storms” of life, while looking to me for some type of answer. Many times, I found myself overwhelmed with empathy, yet filled with sorrow because I was unable to provide answers or even point them in the right direction. When God finally revealed His plan for my life, I began to see the whole picture come together. God had a vision for my life… and it was in my moment of surrender that He gave me eyes to see.

God began to teach me how critical Scripture is to our lives; His Word has become the very breath that gives me life. His plan for me was to lead others to Jesus by simply providing them with Scriptures that would speak directly to their circumstances. It is in receiving God’s grace that we can live with confident hope—it is His Word that gives us the faith we need to receive that grace. It really is the Truth that sets us free and fills us with hope. His Word produces a faith in us that will never fail.

And so, to make a long story short, God revealed “ScriptureNow.com” to me. I can honestly tell you that it has been the greatest blessing in my life and in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in over 30 countries around the world. I can’t imagine one day of my life going by without reaching out and sharing the Word of God to people in this way! And God did all of this in the midst of my raging storms of life.

This is where “Be Still” took on its purpose…as I have read the countless prayer requests through ScriptureNow.com, God spoke to me and showed me the miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm” in a whole new light. This miracle goes to the heart of every single situation that we face in life, and I believe God filled me with the wisdom and insight to be able to write this book for you.

I hope that this book touches your heart and speaks to you through its message. I pray that you will always draw close to God, so that He can comfort, encourage, and rescue you through all of life’s storms. I pray that you will also visit me at:

http://www.ScriptureNow.com

and experience a great blessing

in your life!

Testimonies from ScriptureNow.com

________________________

Oh, what a blessing…I am so thankful to God that I found your website. God speaks to me through you.

Thank you for your Scriptures, they seem to always come on time.

Thank you! It’s amazing how the Scriptures have gone in line with what I am dealing with!!

Thank you so much for your never ending help in my life. The Scriptures were helpful, powerful, and effective in my life.

You have helped save my life. My crisis is over and God gave me a miracle!

God bless you mightily for your compassionate ministry.

I don’t know how you knew, but this Scripture was exactly what I needed. Thank you!!!

Thank you. This is what I needed to hear!

Thank you for all of your prayers and love over this year and for being a safe place to call out to.

I can’t tell you just how much the daily Scriptures have blessed my heart.

You know, before I found out about ScriptureNow.com, I was not lost, but not headed in the right direction.

I will never be able to express the power I have experienced in the Scriptures that you send.

You will never fully understand how God has used your website to turn my life around and get me moving in the right direction.

I had lost all hope until I found your website, and now I am filled with a hope I have never felt before.

The nine Scriptures that you sent have given me nine days of strength. I had never experienced God speaking to me until now. Thank you for using His Word to help me hear Him.

I look so forward to receiving your Daily Scripture. It just seems as though God is speaking right through it!

You will never quite understand the impact your Ministry is having.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and your concerns. I don’t think I could have coped with the pressures I have found myself under if it would not have been for your caring and sending me Scripture and prayer. I now know that I will overcome through Christ!

May God richly bless you for the work you are doing for Him.

I’m wondering if this is really God’s email…the Scriptures you send speak so directly to me…that it must be.

Introduction

________________________

The Storm

Do you feel as though you’re in a raging storm? Storms of life flood your spirit with disillusionment, despair, and disappointment. The consuming waves of a storm in life can submerge your soul with agonizing fear. When you’re in a storm of life, it feels as though each breath might be your last. The ongoing destruction from the storm forces you to cling to anything and everything, in the hopes of somehow surviving it all. As the storm continues to rage, you suddenly realize that there’s no lifeboat—there’s no quick escape. You’re on your own. Usually, very quickly, the terror sets in; with it comes despair and hopelessness. The desperation that overcomes you, suddenly, becomes more than you can withstand. As the end seems to be drawing nearer, with each moment that passes, all you can do is stand by and watch it all unfold.

Our storms of life bring us to the point where we realize that we have nowhere to go, but to God. In a moment of overwhelming desperation, when we finally do call out to Him, we suddenly realize that our relationship with Him has grown cold. Through our cries for help, without stable ground to stand on, it’s anger that takes over and we shout, “Lord, don’t you care?”

We’ve all been there, at one time or another. If you haven’t experienced a storm in your life, then Praise God; but, get ready because Jesus assured us,

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT)

The Controversy of the Miracle

The miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm” has been called one of the most controversial miracles that Jesus performed. Even today, we witness those who are pronounced dead…receive life again, blind who against all odds see, illnesses that are cured without explanation, and tragic accidents where miraculously people survive. We witness miracles every day and realize that they are from the power of something far greater than what we can comprehend.

Yet, even in the face of such miracles, we allow human reasoning to get the best of us. Doubt, more often than not, wins out. We end up walking by sight, instead of by faith. So, we wrestle with our faith, just as the Disciples did on the Sea of Galilee. The battle begins…within. How do we accept someone controlling the wind and the waves in a violent storm? Even if we want to believe, this kind of miracle pushes our faith a little farther than we’d like. This kind of faith presses us beyond our comfort zone.

We like to keep God in a box. We’re comfortable with Him in some things in our lives, but not others. We’re content in keeping Him where we’ve put Him…allowing Him out of the box is just too risky—we’re not sure what to expect from Him. We’re not convinced He’ll do things the way they should be done or in the timing that they should be done. We believe that it’s possible for Him to heal someone we’re praying for, but we’re just not certain that He can do anything in our situation. We’re convinced that there are just some things that God is either too busy to deal with, or He just really doesn’t care. It has been said that to ask God for help in “small things” is wasting His time—be assured, ALL things are small to God. He is looking to and fro the earth for someone to not only call out to Him, but to believe Him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

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This miracle is for you

to understand the purpose

of the storms in your life and

how to persevere through them.

By applying this miracle

to your life,

you will find that God can

calm all of your storms . . .

if you will just have faith

that He can.

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He is looking for your faith in the midst of your storms of life. He has allowed the storm, in an effort to increase your faith, by threatening to destroy it. Out of His great love for you, He calls out to you through your storm and asks, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15) As your life is pushed to the edge, His voice calls down from heaven…demanding an answer. It is your answer that determines whether or not you will make it through the storm and if there will be anything left in the aftermath. It is your faith in God that makes all the difference. Trust Him, and cling to your faith…God ALWAYS keeps His Word.

According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you; (Matthew 9:29 AMP)

The miracle in the storm on the Sea of Galilee revealed the Disciples’ lack of faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Although they had witnessed Jesus perform many miracles, they still had doubt about who He really was. It was through this miracle that their faith was truly put to the test. The Disciples believed, just as most people did, that many miracles are understandably possible, but only God could control the wind and the waves. There was no doubt in their minds that this kind of power could only come from the hand of God. God’s desire is to move His hand in your storms, as well. He is looking for your faith.

What you must understand is that this miracle was not just a story of God’s awesome power—it was not just another miracle. This miracle was for you to understand the purpose of the storms in your life and how to persevere through them. By applying this miracle to your life, you will find that God can calm all of your storms…if you will just have faith that He can.

Storms Will Come

After receiving thousands of emails from people all over the world through the ScriptureNow.com Ministry, I might guess that your storms are a broken relationship, a shattered marriage, depression, despair over unsaved loved ones, job anxiety, unemployment, financial failure, an illness, death, or some unexpected tragedy. Maybe you feel that life in general is a raging storm. No matter how big or small your storm, you feel that no one seems to understand; you’re convinced that you’re in the boat alone. With each agonizing moment that passes, you feel that you’re one day closer to drowning; it seems as though nothing and no one can save you.

If you aren’t currently in a storm, be on the lookout. The enemy is looking for an opportunity to send the perfect storm into your life. He is well aware of our deepest desires and our innermost struggles. Satan not only attacks us where we are weakest; more often, he attacks in those areas where we feel we are strongest. He knows exactly where pride exists. He knows we won’t see an attack coming when we’re overly confident in a particular area of our lives. He knows those places in our lives where we’ve decided to play God and we’ve shut God out. He’s able to see any crack we leave in the door, and He feels more than comfortable letting himself in. The enemy is always at work, and he is more than willing to kick you while you’re down. He’s not particularly concerned about what’s going on in your life and whether or not the timing is convenient. He’s simply out to destroy your faith in God. The enemy’s attacks are deceitful and destructive—you won’t even see what’s coming. Just as in the miracle of Jesus Calms the Storm, many times, the storms of our lives will come from out of nowhere—unexpectedly.

How many times have we judged others and said, “I’d never do that. That could never happen to me…I’m too loving, too giving, too faithful, too loyal, too obedient, too prayerful, too dedicated to God. Besides, I go to church on Sunday!” Before we know it, we find ourselves in the midst of that very storm; we’re dazed and confused, wondering how we got there and how to get out.

The Storm Has Great Purpose

The Disciples were not exempt from a test of faith and neither are we. God’s purposes for them were so great, so critical to His plans, that He allowed a raging storm to take over their boat on the Sea of Galilee—bringing them to the edge of their faith. He increased their faith by asking them to step into a boat and risk it.

Faith isn’t faith, unless it requires taking a step into the unseen. It doesn’t take faith at all to cling to what you see. The faith that God is after is a faith that clings to Him and isn’t threatened or destroyed by adversity and uncertainty. You know that you have genuine faith when common sense tells you to stop believing, but you continue to trust God anyway. It’s all about your faith in God—don’t ever believe otherwise.

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Faith isn’t faith,

unless it believes in the unseen.

It doesn’t take faith at all

to cling to what you see.

Faith in God trusts Him

even when you

can’t see the very next step

in front of you.

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This unexpected storm tested these men, who considered themselves very skilled fishermen, so that their faith would be strengthened for the journey ahead. In their weakness, they realized they were helpless without their Savior. When Jesus performed the incredible miracle of calming the storm, it caused these expert fishermen, who had been through many storms on this Sea, to experience a storm that would bring them to the end of themselves. Although the Disciples were master fishermen, God took the area of the Disciples’ lives where they felt most confident… and tested them. God knew they needed to be brought to the end of their own abilities, so that they would trust in His.

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Don’t be deceived,

God has allowed

the storm in your life . . .

with a plan to use it

ALL for your good

and HIS glory!

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Rest assured, God is bringing you to your knees, so that you can witness His hand lift you up. The message that God needed the Disciples to understand was that it was by faith alone that they could be saved. It’s the message He wants you to know, as well. But people are declared righteous because of their faith,not because of their work. (Romans 4:5 NLT)By sending the storm and testing them in it, God turned these men into the greatest witnesses for Christ that the world has ever known. Our storms will also come in those areas where we least expect them. Our pride will keep us from seeing the storms coming. It is in the areas where pride exists that Satan sees an easy target. Don’t be deceived…God allowed the storm in this miracle, and He’s allowing it in your life…with a plan to use it ALL for your good and His glory!

Then the Lord asked Satan, ‘Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.’ Satan replied to the Lord, ‘Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!’ ‘Alright, you may test him,’ the Lord said to Satan. ‘Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.’ So Satan left the Lord’s presence. (Job 1:8-12 NLT)

Never doubt that there are spiritual conversations about you. Yes, you! You are known by name in the heavenly realms, and we know this from Isaiah 45:3 (NLT):

I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

You are no different than Job or the Disciples, in that, God will only allow those things which He knows will bring you closer to Him, give Him the glory, and make your heart more like His. It is imperative to truly understand that God will never give you more than you can withstand, and He will always make a way through your storms when you trust in Him.

But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give into it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT)

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If God has allowed the storm,

He will make a way through it.

Be certain that God is only

allowing the storm

because He knows the

blessing behind it.

Through the storm,

God is giving you the opportunity

to experience, first hand,

His miraculous and sufficient

power in your life.

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When you feel that God has allowed your storms, you should be comforted in just knowing that God alone is control of them. In your storms of life, your spirit can be quieted by grabbing hold of the Truth: If God has allowed a storm...He will make a way through it. He has assured you that He is with you always. (Matthew 28:20) You should feel secure, in just knowing, that God has set the boundaries and perimeters of your storm—just as he did with Job. It should strengthen you to know that God is allowing this storm only because He knows the blessing behind it.

When God is at work in your life, you will often experience the miraculous and sufficient power of God in your storms…even more than in your times of great blessings. We can only truly appreciate the glory of being on the mountaintop when we’ve had to climb up from the valley. And the only way from one mountaintop to the next is through the valleys. It’s in the valley where the richest soil in the world is found…God knows what He’s doing when He’s growing your faith.

It is only through the storms that you will truly know the heart of God. In your storms, you’ve been given the opportunity to encounter God—the choice to accept His invitation is yours.

As long as we insist on being in control, God will not interfere. He will allow us to go our own way, until we come to a place of surrender. In order to experience God’s miracles in our lives, we must be willing to relinquish control, and let God be God.

Too often, instead of trusting in God’s sovereign purpose in our storms, many of us feel anger. We feel like God allowed us to walk into the storm or that He even led us right into it.

________________________

Jesus performs many miracles

in our storms of life—

showing us that He

is ALL we need,

when there is a need,

is just one of them.

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We’re convinced that He could have spared us the pain and suffering. Understanding the purpose of your storms will help you persevere through them and bring you closer to God, instead of casting your soul deeper into despair by allowing your heart to become hardened in your distress.

In all this, Job did not sin by blaming God. (Job 1:22 NLT)

(If you have not read the book of Job…I challenge you to do so and understand what it truly means to have faith in God through the most tragic storms of life.)

Why A Storm?

We live in a world filled with anxiety and tremendous uncertainty. Each and every day we are confronted by stories that shake the foundation of our faith—to a point of near destruction. If we, personally, aren’t facing unthinkable trials and tragedies, we worry about friends and family members who are facing the unconceivable. Or we become fearful of what lies ahead in our lives.

We wonder what good could possibly come from such overwhelming anxiety and fear. But, it’s in the worst of times that we find the most opportune moment to re–examine our lives. What have we taken for granted? What are our morals and values? On what have we built our foundation and will it be able to withstand the storms in our lives? In the storms of life, we have two choices: we can reaffirm the faith we embraced when we accepted Christ into our life, or we can walk away. For those who have never known Jesus, these times of suffering are an opportunity for the heart to be opened and the need for God to surface. God is at work, even when we are unaware. The storms convince us that we’re lost and in need of help. In our desperation, we realize that we need a “compass.”

When you’re holding a compass, you can turn your feet in any direction, but the arrow of the compass will faithfully point to Magnetic North. If you should ever become lost, the compass will give you an indication of where you are and where you’re going. In life, “North” is Christ. We may take a path that leads us in the “world’s” direction and we might get lost along the way; but, when we turn to Christ, He realigns our lives in the direction of God’s will. Jesus performs many miracles in our storms of life—showing us that He is all that we need, when there is a need, is just one of them.

Whether you’re a person of faith right now, or a person still questioning and seeking answers, it’s likely that you’re open–minded to miracles. If you don’t need a miracle right now, you probably know someone who does. You see, God does extraordinary things for ordinary people. He loves to surprise us with His goodness and His power, in order to help us in our most desperate times. He can do anything. But, in the storms of your life, He wants you to know His presence, so that as you wait for His perfect timing, you can be filled with hope. He wants you to find security and peace in His care; He wants you trusting that He is mighty to save. (Zephaniah 3:17)

If you want to find an extraordinary miracle in the life of an ordinary man, you need to look no further than to Moses. Moses was traveling in the desert when God spoke to him through a burning bush. (If you want to get an amazing glimpse of God’s awesome power, you should make it a priority to read through the book of Exodus.) God caught Moses off-guard, in the middle of the desert, through a burning bush. His encounter with God was life–altering. This miracle enabled Moses to walk forward in faith, trusting God, because he could not deny such a supernatural occurrence. Moses was able to walk through even greater adversity along his journey because with each step of faith that he took…God strengthened his faith through one miracle after another.

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God wants to give you a miracle

in your storm,

but it’s less about the actual

miracle and more

about your personal encounter

with Him.

He wants to give you

a persevering faith

that will see you

through the journey.

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God used a burning bush to initially get Moses’ attention; then, when Moses came to examine the bush further, God called out his name. (In our storms of life…God calls out our name, too. He wants our undivided attention.) As Moses drew even closer to God, God stopped him and told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. He wanted Moses to know that he was in the presence of Almighty God. He wanted him to remember that moment forever. That event is now remembered thousands of years later—God’s miracle made its mark on history.

In this particular miracle, God didn’t stop with a burning bush. He goes on to tell Moses that He has heard the cries of His people in their suffering, and He has come down to save them. In your storms of life, God wants to step in and give you a miracle, too. But, it’s less about the actual miracle and more about your encounter with Him. He wants to give you the faith that will see you through the storms of your life that are yet to come. And they will come.

The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning once, famously, wrote that “Earth is crammed full of heaven, and every common bush aglow with God. Those who see…take off their shoes.” God wants to bring you to a place of “taking off your shoes.”

________________________

Rest assured that God

can perform miracles

in your life, in your storms,

just as He did when He calmed

the Sea of Galilee.

The question is,

“Do YOU believe He can?”

________________________

This miracle on the Sea of Galilee, this storm, was preparing the Disciples’ faith for the journey ahead. It was the storm that would bring them to their knees and really get their attention. God also knows exactly what storms you and I will need to go through, in order to draw us closer to Him. Our storms come with an objective that is far more significant than our present need for comfort. God is doing us a favor by bringing us to a place of forfeiting all of our expectations in our lives, so that we will embrace His. Your storms can create the greatest intimacy between yourself and God. There is nothing more awesome. When you’re walking with God, the emptiness and loneliness that daily consumes your soul is filled with a joy that overflows and a peace that is beyond all understanding.

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Our storms come

with an objective that is far

more significant than

our present need for comfort.

God is doing us a favor,

by bringing us to a place

of forfeiting our will in our lives,

so that we will embrace His.

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This miracle was not just for the Disciples—it was for you. You will experience a miracle in your life, if you will understand how significant the storms of your life are to your faith. You must realize that God can do ANYTHING—He can calm the storm. But, what He really wants to do is use your life for His purposes—something far greater than anything you could dare ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). He wants to give you something far more fulfilling than you could ever desire.

It should be encouraging to know that if God could take these few ordinary men and use this storm to change the world forever through their testimony…He can use your storms for His glory, too.

Yes, God wants to use you. Rest assured He can perform miracles in your life, in your storms, just as He did when He calmed the Sea of Galilee. The question is, “Do you believe He can?”

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.” (John 20:29 NLT)

"What do you mean, 'If I can'?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes."(Mark 9:23 NLT)

God intends to perform a miracle in your life and not have you say, “How did He do that?” Instead, He wants for you to have the same experience as the Disciples of Jesus had—it was in their awe and amazement that they asked, “Who is this man, that even the winds and waves obey him?”

And they were filled with awe amazement. They said to one another ‘Who is this man, that even the winds and waves obey him?’ (Luke 8:25 NLT)

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God is strengthening our faith

in the storms of our lives,

and He wants us to get

the message loud and clear—

our faith is not strengthened by

striving after it,

but by resting in Him—

the Faithful One.

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God desires for you to be in such awe and amazement of His power that you are less concerned about how He did it, but rather, who it is that did it! We beg and beg for miracles in our lives, constantly wondering why God won’t do something; yet, when He does, He mystifies us even more. It’s our heart He’s after, and He’s more than willing to bring about a miracle in your life in order to capture it. His miracle for you is that you will not be overcome by your storms, but that you will know Who to come to when your storms emerge. He’s strengthening your faith in Him through the storms. He wants us to get the message loud and clear: our faith is not strengthened by striving after it, but by resting in Him, the Faithful One.

Just as in the Sea of Galilee, God knows our storms often come from out of nowhere. He’s well aware that when they do…we are likely to go into shear panic. His miracle for you, in the storm, is that you can be at rest with Him through your faith.

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God knows what He’s doing.

Let the storms come,

and let the waters rise—

God is taking you deeper.

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We look at the storms of our lives and too often, ask, “If God is so loving, why does He allow pain and suffering in my life? What have I done to deserve being a victim in this circumstance? Why do I need to go through this storm? Why can’t He just take me around it? I want out and NOW!” The truth is, God knows us…He knows what it will take to bring us to our knees. It is upon our knees where we learn to walk by faith and receive the peace that only He can provide when storms arise. Remember this clearly: ANYTHING that drops us to our knees and brings us to the foot of the Cross is GOOD for us. In our moments of complete brokenness, when the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing (Matthew 26:41), He wants us to know: In Jesus we will find confident patience, strength, endurance, and peace.

God knows exactly what we need, in order to make it through this journey of life. At times, our journey will take us into unfamiliar, intimidating, territory…which may be exactly where God wants us, so that He can perform His greatest work in our lives. If we go back to the book of Exodus, and the life of Moses, we find that when Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that ran through the territory—even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. Here’s what He said, ‘If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led them in a round-about way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. (Exodus 13:17-18 NLT) You see, God may have led them the long way, but He was preparing an even greater miracle than Him rescuing them.

You might be tempted to believe that God doesn’t know what He’s doing—that He’s causing you to endure unnecessary pain and suffering. But, rest assured, God knows exactly what He’s doing. Let the storms come, and let the waters rise—God is taking you deeper.

God knows that this won’t be the last storm you will encounter in your life. It’s a fallen world; He wants to build your faith in Him, so when the sea rages and the storm clouds begin closing in…you will find peace in Him.

Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT)

Faith Can Calm the Storm

Through God’s Word, we are assured that He can calm the “external” storm; but, the storm He really wants to calm is the one inside of you—the “internal” storm. Ask yourself, while reading through this miracle, “Was Jesus just simply telling the wind and the waves, “Peace! Be Still!”? Or was there a deeper message?” Jesus was speaking to YOU in this miracle. You see, it took no effort at all for Jesus to calm the external, physical, storm. It was much more important for Him to teach us how to calm the storm within us—the “spiritual” storm. When you learn how to calm the storm within, through your faith in God, the wind and the waves may be threatening to take you under, but you will find yourself in the eye of the storm…at peace.

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God wants you

in the back of the boat with Jesus—

a place of peace and rest.

He wants you to “Be Still”;

yet, we find that “being still”

requires action . . .

it demands your faith.

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We can look at a hurricane as being symbolic to our storms of life. Hurricanes have a distinctive feature called an “eye.” The eye of a hurricane is in the middle of the spiral of the storm. The eye is produced by the spiraling action of the storm, and it is the area where the air is slowly sinking. When the eye of a hurricane passes over an area, the winds decrease to a gentle breeze and the rain stops. In the eye of the hurricane, you may even be able to see the sun during the day or the stars out at night. Then, as the rest of the storm passes and the wind suddenly changes directions, the storm becomes ferocious again.

God wants you to be in the eye of your storms in life. In the eye, He knows that you will be able to see the light of day and enjoy the beauty of the stars at night. In the eye of storm, the winds and waters may rage around you, but you will be experiencing peace in the midst of it. God has given us His Word, the Scriptures, to keep us from being overcome by the most powerful winds that reside just outside the eye wall of the storm.

Understanding the miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm” makes us certain of one thing: whatever the storm is, however fierce, and however the storm came about, God can calm it. The question is, “Will you have faith that God can calm your storm?” The lesson in this fantastic miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm” is to have confident faith in God, and get to the back of the boat with Jesus—a place of peace and rest. What we also learn through this miracle is that “Being Still,” actually, requires action. Let the miracle of Jesus calming the storm increase your faith and bring about a miracle in your life, by teaching you to “Be Still.”

NOTE TO READER: I encourage you to go through this book and highlight the Scriptures. When you only have a moment, skim through the book and be encouraged!

Also, don’t miss the section in the back of this book, “God’s Word On…” Use the section as a reference to God’s Promises that will encourage your faith through all your storms of life.

Chapter 1

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Purpose in the Storm

Jesus Calms the Storm

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be Still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? (Mark 4:35-40 ESV)

Then Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?” And they were filled with awe and amazement. They said to one another, “Who is this man, that even the winds and waves obey him?”(Luke 8:25 NLT)

In order to understand the miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm,” we must first understand the power of the sea; what its power represented then and now. According to the Gospels, Jesus’ ministry was centered around the Sea of Galilee. While many important events occurred in Jerusalem, Jesus spent most of His ministry along the shore of this freshwater lake. It was there that Jesus gave more than half of His parables and where He performed most of His miracles.

The Sea of Galilee was known for its sudden, violent storms. When it raged, the threat of drowning among fisherman was all too real. The Sea of Galilee is unique in that it is seven hundred feet below sea level, making it the lowest freshwater lake on the earth. At its widest point, the lake measures thirteen miles from north to south and seven and a half miles from east to west. Its deepest point is estimated at around two hundred feet.

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Never forget that

God is in control.

The question is,

“When a storm arises,

will you

cry out to the only One

who can help you?”

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The Sea’s location was significant because it made the Sea susceptible to the sudden and violent storms. The storms would often develop when an east wind dropped cool air over the warm air rising from the Sea. This change produced well known furious storms, without warning.

The word “sea,” in Hebrew, comes from the name of the evil god in the Babylonian creation story. It meant “evil” and “a mysterious and threatening force opposed to God.” When Hebrews wanted to declare God’s authority, they spoke of His power over the sea. In Psalms 89:9 (NKJV), the Psalmist said,

You rule the raging of the sea,

when its waves rise, you still them.

In Psalm 107:23-30 (NLT), we not only find a prophecy of “Jesus Calms the Storm,” but an acknowledgement of God’s power over the storms.

Some went off in ships, plying the trade routes of the world. They too, observed the Lord’s power in action, his impressive works on the deepest seas. He spoke, and the winds rose, stirring up the waves. Their ships were tossed to the heavens and sank again to the depths; the sailors cringed in terror. They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at wits’ end. “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into the harbor!

As powerful as storms were and still are today, God is acknowledged to have power over them all. Never forget this truth in your own life: God is in control. The question is, “When a storm arises, will you cry out to the One who can help you?”

It was known that storms on this Sea could arise from nowhere; so, since Jesus was the Son of God, one might think that surely He knew there would be a great storm on this venture across the Sea. And if this were so, why did He choose to take His Disciples into it? You would almost expect, since Jesus was with the Disciples on this trip across the Sea, they would be free from worry. We can be certain they didn’t expect to encounter a raging storm that they may have experienced on many other trips.

Certainly, the Disciples who gave up everything in life and obediently followed Jesus would be protected from harm’s way. They might even expect that this would be the most wonderful venture across the Sea that they had ever experienced. They more than likely found confidence in their commitment to Jesus and felt secure in His ability to protect them. They loved Jesus, believed in Him, and left behind everything in life to follow Him; yet, the Disciples’ devotion did nothing to protect them from the terror of this storm.

In the Boat

Many times, we as Christians feel the same way the Disciples did…when we become a Christian and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, shouldn’t we be protected? We, understandably, assume that life should be “easier”; we feel certain that we should instantly have a closer relationship with God. We can falsely believe that we no longer have to endure “storms” in our lives. But, then, suddenly, one day, in one moment in time, we’re faced with the painful truth—it’s not the way it works. Our false expectations can create a storm in and of itself. When life doesn’t happen just as we think it should, the winds start roaring and the storm clouds look ferocious. Our faith can begin to fail amidst the overwhelming atmosphere of doubt and despair.

________________________

Jesus didn’t come

to get you out of the storms

of your life,

He came to take you

through them.

________________________

When we make a stand in our faith, when we decide to get in the boat with Jesus, Satan unleashes his rage against us. We are now “officially” his enemy, and the true battle has begun. Shockingly, as we take each step of faith, our storms seem to actually come more often than before we believed!

When we’re faced with the storms that we must endure, when walking with God, we find ourselves in the midst of our storm crying out, “Why is this happening to me? If You’re a God of love, why all this pain? Why do the innocent suffer? If You’re a God of order, why all the chaos? If You’re so powerful, why do You seem so incapable? By the way, where are You?” It is at this time that we need to be reminded of the Truth: Jesus told us in John 16:33 (NLT),

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

When you’re in the boat with Jesus, the answers to your questions come in many unexpected ways. Sometimes, they come by way of a storm that threatens to take you under. You see, instead of presenting just an “ordinary” trial with an “ordinary storm,” the storm in this miracle would be like no other. This storm would threaten to take the Disciples’ very lives. This storm would ultimately test their faith. This miracle would cause the Disciples to ask, “Who is this man?”

________________________

In the storms of your life,

God is always at work—

drawing you closer

to Him and weaving

all of your paths

into His purposes.

________________________

It’s interesting that the most violent storm these fishermen had ever experienced was when Jesus, the Son of God, was in the boat with them. It should be comforting to know that in the most violent storms of your life…Jesus is in the boat with you, too.  Understanding the storms of your life is realizing that although the waves may start crashing in on you…Jesus is with you. More importantly, you must be assured through His Word: He will not allow you to perish, if you will acknowledge His presence in your life and call out His name. Surely, your boat cannot go down with the Son of God in it! Don’t be deceived, Jesus didn’t come to get you out of the storms in your life—He came to take you through them.

________________________

Although we may not

particularly like some of

the paths on our journey,

the destination of a

closer relationship with God

is worth all the storms

we may have to go through.

________________________

You see, God knew that the Disciples needed to go from “here” to “there,” in order to experience the miracle. He needed to take them from “here” to “there” in their faith—it’s no different in our own lives. God wants to take us from “here,” in our faith, and bring us “there”—a place of walking in greater faith for the journey ahead. When you take a journey with Jesus, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced. It’s simply not of this world. When you’re walking with Jesus, you’re taking a supernatural, spiritual, journey where He prepares you to live eternally.

Although we may not particularly like some of the paths on our journey…the destination of a closer relationship with God is worth all the storms we may have to endure. If you’re following Jesus, you know where you’re going—He’s assured you of the destination. It’s all about the journey getting there. He’ll take you step by step because He doesn’t want you to miss a thing.

I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.

I will rescue you for my sake-yes, for my own sake! (Isaiah 48:10 NLT)

It is often asked, “Was this the miracle of God calming the storm in the Sea or the miracle of Jesus teaching us how to calm the storm inside of us?” Jesus knew His Disciples’ hearts, just like He knows your heart and mine.

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. (Psalm 139:2 NLT)

As God lovingly allows us to venture into the storms of our lives, He is always at work—drawing us closer and closer to Him while weaving all our paths into His purposes. If you’re trusting in God, you can’t just look at your circumstances and think that is all there is to it. They are a parallel to something deeper and more important concerning the spirit within you.

________________________

Your storms of life

are a parallel to something

deeper concerning

the spirit within you.

God knows your deeper need—

to develop a faith

that glorifies Him.

________________________

In the storms of our lives, God will show us that we have a deeper need. We need to develop the faith that glorifies Him. We must recognize that we are in the hands of a loving Father who has put us right where we need to be, in order to teach us His ways and His will.

The answers for the storms in our lives come through the still small voice of God saying, “I will not let you go down. You have no reason to despair. Rest in My Word. I am with you always.” Through His Word, He assures us that He has everything under control, and there is no reason to fear. In the words of an old Hymn,

Day by day and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here; Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear.

If we want to understand God’s purpose in the storm, we must learn that God has allowed the storms in our lives out of love and wisdom. God designed life to be full of the unexpected, so that we will constantly be reminded that we’re not in control.

Satan fills us with the lies that we are our own gods, we are in charge, we can plan, and we can direct our future; to the degree that God has given us free will, there is some truth to that. But, the devil distorts it and leads us to believe that we can control everything. As hard as we might try…we can’t. Jesus himself reminded us,

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; (John 5:19 NIV)

Before Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate asked Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus’ answer was simple, revealing, and full of Truth…“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11 NIV).

Regardless of what storm we’re facing in life, we can never forget the simple truth: God is in charge. As difficult as it is for us to understand, God’s will in our lives has far greater purposes than we can imagine; yet, all of them are designed for greater good. We must face the Truth that says God is ultimately in control.

In understanding God’s ways, we cannot decide to heartily accept some Truths, yet readily discount others. We must accept God’s ways and trust in them; it’s a decision we make that isn’t based upon our desires or emotions. We walk by faith in our loving God. Take a moment to really grasp the following truth in Romans 9: 15-19 (NIV):

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?”

Even though our storms may come filled with pain and suffering, we are to clearly understand that they come from a loving God…and we must praise Him…in the storm.

Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad? (Job 2:10 NLT)

An unknown poet expressed the depths of God’s work in and through us in this way:

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man;

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part,

Then he yearns with all his heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Watch his methods, watch his ways—

How he ruthlessly perfects

Whom he royally elects.

How he hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows, converts him

Into trial shapes of clay

Which only God understands.

While his tortured heart is crying,

And he lifts beseeching hands.

How he bends but never breaks

When his good he undertakes.

How he uses Whom he chooses,

And with every purpose, fuses him,

By every act, induces him

To try his splendor out.

God knows what he's about.

(We need to fully grasp what this poet did, God is at work, He has a purpose, and He knows what He’s doing.)

One of God’s primary purposes for our storms that we can understand is: He wants to conform us into the likeness of Christ.

________________________

God is not with you to keep

the storms from coming . . .

He’s with you

to take you through them.

________________________

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29 NIV)

He is molding us, so that our character mirrors that of Jesus: the way He thinks, loves, and forgives. Through the process, He is teaching us to depend on His presence, instead of relying on our own strength. We are to draw all of our strength from Him.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NIV)

As God works on our character, He uses our suffering to teach us to keep focused upon Him. God’s incredible love for us does not eliminate the pain, suffering, and heartache that we might go through; but, His Promises assure us that He is with us, and He is using it all for good. (Romans 8:28) Through it all, we learn to trust that no matter how devastating the storm might be…God is with us. And if we trust and obey Him, He will strengthen us and fill us with hope in the midst of the storm.

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. (2 Chronicles 20:12 NIV)

You see, His presence is made perfect in your weakness; it is in your weakest moments where He will comfort you, strengthen you, and reassure you of His faithfulness. He wants you to know that He is not in your life to stop the storms from coming, but to take you through them. He wants your faith.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NLT)

God’s Presence in the Storm

We can be certain that God would never test our faith and then push us out to sea without His presence. The question is, “Do you acknowledge His presence during these storms of life?” The even greater question is, “At what point do you acknowledge His presence?” We storm the gates of heaven, wondering, “Where is God?” Yet, we fail to see that He is there with us… and He’s been there all along. In fact, He’s in the clouds—He’s hovering over us each day, going before us, preparing a way through the storm.

The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp. (Numbers 10:34 NIV)

They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for You, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. (Numbers 14:14 NASB)

Just think about the fact that the Disciples were in a boat, with who they supposedly believed was the Son of God; yet, even they failed to acknowledge Him, until it was almost too late. They were about to die! Why didn’t it occur to them to ask for Jesus’ help sooner? From the outside looking in, the answer seemed so obvious. In our own storms of life, it’s often difficult to see the “obvious.” Our vision becomes clouded with debilitating doubt and paralyzing fear.

________________________

You can’t allow your vision

to become clouded

with doubt and fear.

Don’t lose sight of the fact

that God is with you always . . .

He’s been with you all along.

________________________

The Disciples had seen Jesus perform many miracles—we have seen God work miracles in our own lives, yet we so easily forget them. Jesus says, “Don’t you remember?”(Matthew 16:9) If they had faith in Him, the answer would be obvious—ask the Son of God to calm the storm! But they didn’t. God knew that the Disciples’ faith would grow through this experience. Their greater faith would enable them to be better witnesses. The miracles He performed were to teach us to have faith in Him, regardless of our circumstances—no matter how impossible things might seem.

________________________

Hear this truth:

“You don’t have to save yourself.”

(Besides, you can’t!)

Jesus came so that

you don’t have to . . .

He’s the one who saves you

through every storm of life.

He is all you need.

________________________

God reminds us through His Word:

Everything is possible

for him who believes.

(Mark 9:23 NIV)

Have faith in God.

(Mark 11:22 NIV)

The message God has for you is no different than it was for the Disciples. He wants you to know that faith in Him can bring about miracles in your life.

Many of us believe that miracles won’t happen to us. Or maybe we’re like the Disciples and we think that we have the ability to make it through this storm on our own. But, when we can’t seem to rescue ourselves, we finally, as a last ditch effort, ask for God’s help. Hear this truth: “You don’t have to save yourself.” (Besides, you can’t!) Jesus came so that you don’t have to…He’s the one who saves you through every storm of life. He is all you need.

________________________

When miracles happen,

hope destroys hopelessness,

joy overcomes pain,

love conquers hate,

and faith finds God

in the midst of it all.

________________________

We tend to wait until the last moment because we seem to think that God can’t possibly intervene in our situation. How much peace do we forfeit by struggling for the answers on our own? How much pain do we needlessly bear because we agonize over possibilities that never happen? We tend to believe that there are some things that God can handle, but we’re convinced that on many things…He needs our help. At other times, we’re certain that it’s necessary for us to take control…God just seems to be taking too long. Even the Disciples, at some point, subconsciously believed that there was nothing that Jesus could do to help them calm the wind and waves of the storm. It was the perfect set up for the perfect miracle. God knows what He’s doing.

________________________

Our faith should never

be surprised to see God

when He shows up.

________________________

In the storm, He’s bringing us to a place of embracing the truth that our life is better managed by His hands, not our own. Trust Him—He does a much better job than we could ever do.

In the face of impossible circumstances, God says, “Lift up your eyes. Look beyond the visible realities.” God doesn’t work in the “natural.” He works in the “supernatural.” His only requirement is that we no longer be “unbelieving,” but “believing.” He says, “Believe and have faith that I am at work, and I will enrich your life beyond your imagination.” Do you dare believe God? When miracles happen, hope destroys hopelessness, joy overcomes pain, love conquers hate, and faith finds God in the midst of it all…ever present…worthy of praise.

Who doesn’t want a miracle? Who doesn’t want to be saved from the paralyzing grip of fear? We beg God for a miracle, but when He shows up, we’re often found with very little faith—we’re like the Disciples, standing in awe and amazement. Our faith should never be surprised to see God’s hand, when we’ve come to a place of surrender.

In our world, becoming mature means becoming “independent.” In our spiritual journey, maturity means becoming helplessly dependent upon God. Our peace in the storm can only come from our resignation into God’s hands. Regardless of how hopeless a situation might seem, we must surrender all of our hopes and expectations into His hands; when we do, we find that He will empower us to endure any hardship. His desire is that we would continue the journey without fear or anxiety, while trusting in His care. The more resigned we are to God’s care, the less power our circumstances have over us. When we’re resigned to God’s care, we won’t be frightened by undesirable news, and we won’t be trying to constantly figure out the next step. If we have faith in God, we will simply trust, wait, and expect God.

Such people will not be overcome by evil. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. THEY DO NOT FEAR BAD NEWS;they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. THEY ARE CONFIDENT AND FEARLESS AND CAN FACE THEIR FOES TRIUMPHANTLY. (Psalm 112:6-8 NLT)

Quite possibly, you’re not sure that you want to take that step. You might feel that “trusting God” comes with too much obligation. You might decide that you don’t want to feel a burden of having to “repay” God for His miracle in your life. You may desire His hand, but you’re not sure about coming face to face with Him. (Job 23:15) You may be overwhelmed in feeling that you would be in debt to Him and you don’t want to carry that weight. The truth is that you’re already in deeper debt to Him than you’ll ever imagine; that’s why He sent Jesus. Jesus can save you. It’s the storms of your life that bring you to a place of surrender. God wants you to stop all of your “trying” and simply start “trusting.” He wants to eliminate the fleshly part of you that wants to control your life. He wants you to encounter something much more wonderful than anything you could devise. When you truly understand your storms of life, you will find that your storms will allow God to lift you up and give you true life to the full…until it overflows. It’s possible that if we never had to face our storms of life, we wouldn’t seek the Lord. The purpose of your storm, simply put, is all about your relationship with Jesus. It’s all out your faith in Him.

In John Ortberg’s book, “Faith and Doubt,” he defines our faith and hope by saying that, “Hope points to one Man, one hope, one God who is worth trusting, not because of who He is. He is the one in whom and by whom we can hope.” Faith looks Jesus in the eyes and says, “Yes Lord, wherever You lead…I will follow.” We can trust that if He leads us into a raging storm, or allows a storm to come into our lives, He’s got something amazing in mind. He wants to show you His sufficiency, His comforting presence, and His strength that will help you endure. Your trials become tools in the hand of God. Tell Him you’ll follow Him—then watch Him go to work.

Then Jesus said to the Disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.” (Mark 8:34-35 NLT)

When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor. (James 4:10 NLT)

The Call of the Storm

Storms of life are used by God to strengthen your faith in Him. He’s asking you to step out in faith and show Him that you are ready to live with Him forever.

________________________

God doesn’t ask us to

“blindly” trust Him.

He reveals Himself

through Scripture and

in our experiences

to convince us that He

is fully trustworthy.

________________________

The storms call us to a higher place—they prove our faith and mature us spiritually. God may or may not have sent the storm into our life, but we can rest assured that He is with us through it all. The more we trust Him, the more our faith will grow. Placing our trust in Him will make all the difference for the journey.

Don’t make the mistake of basing your faith on a particular outcome. We’ve all done it. We’ve prayed for God to answer our prayers with very detailed expectations, and we’ve seen our faith crumble to pieces when things didn’t happen the way we thought they should.

________________________

Your storms of life will reveal,

refine, strengthen,

and perfect those areas

that are hindering

your spiritual growth.

________________________

We find ourselves embracing “positive thinking,” instead of real faith. Faith that grows us trusts in “Someone” rather than “something.” Faith trusts in the character of God who is merciful, loving, and just. God doesn’t ask us to “blindly” trust Him. He reveals Himself through Scripture and through our experiences to convince us that He is trustworthy.

The call of the storms in your life is to have greater faith in God. Your circumstances might look hopeless, you may have cried out to God for help, and you may have only heard a deafening silence; but, in your moments of abandoning all hope, you will find yourself in awe and amazement when you witness the power of God in your life. Your momentary pain and suffering will vanish, in an instant, when you open your soul to the risks of faith. Faith in God will bring you to the edge…every time. Each step of faith will demand that you reach out for the hand of God. He wants you to be a witness to His awesome presence and power.

The call of the storm in the Disciples’ lives caused them to be devoted witnesses to Christ because they experienced a “personal” miracle through the magnificent power of God—Jesus calmed their storm…He saved their lives.

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.” (John 20:29 NLT)

When trying to understand how this miracle relates to your life and the storms you face, it is important to realize that the storm did not slowly subside or die down: when the Disciples cried out to Jesus for help—it stopped immediately! It appears that from that moment on, the Disciples were overwhelmed, not only with the power that Jesus possessed, but that He truly must be the Son of God. When the Disciples witnessed this great miracle, they were suddenly overcome by its “stillness.” Imagine being more frightened of how your storm of life is “stilled,” rather than of the fear of the raging storm itself!

________________________

Faith in God will bring you

to the edge . . .

every time.

Each step of faith you take

will demand that you

reach out for the hand of God . . .

make sure you take it

and never let go.

________________________

Can you imagine? Whatever storm you’re currently in, God can stop it immediately. When we call upon the name of Jesus, He does hear us; He will answer us through the storm. Will you call upon Him now? Will you show Him your faith in Him and cry out to Him even when you cannot see Him? Or will you keep trying to bail water out of a boat that is already capsizing?

The Disciples were truly the closest men to the Son of God; yet, at the end of this miracle we see that even they had doubts in their heart about who Jesus really was. They saw with their own eyes all of the miracles He performed, but they still asked, “Who is this man?” A little surprising…don’t you think? Onlookers may have believed that the Disciples must have had the highest level of faith—they left their lives and followed Jesus. But, Jesus knew where their faith was lacking. Jesus saw their heart…just like He sees yours. You cannot hide your heart from God.

It is in our storms where the areas of our lives that are hindering our spiritual growth are revealed. It is in the storms that God will reveal, refine, strengthen, and perfect those areas…if you allow Him to take you through the storm.

________________________

Behind every storm

there is a blessing.

View your storm

as a revelation from God,

an opportunity to learn

to trust Him,

and a stepping stone

for better things

in the future.

________________________

You can trust God. He already knows exactly what He’s going to do in your situation. He has a plan. He wants you to place your trust in Him by saying, “You are God, and nothing is impossible with You. I am giving this situation to You and it is no longer mine but yours to deal with as You will. “He’s taking your faith to a place of understanding His desire and ability to work a miracle for you—not only in your current storm, but in every storm you will ever face. His desire is that you would develop an unwavering faith that is anchored in Him.

Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! (Psalm 62:8 AMP)

The Blessing Behind the Storm

It should be comforting to know that although God allows the storm, Jesus is in the boat with you. Yes, He is with you, right now, in the boat where you sit in the midst of your storm. The difference is: He is in the stern resting because He knows the blessing behind all of the wind and rain. He knows that the destruction in your life can be used to rebuild your life and make it better than it was before. He knows that God has the power to turn your ashes to beauty.

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them strong and graceful oaks for his own glory. (Isaiah 61:3 NLT)

There is no storm that is not permitted and controlled by God. When Jesus rose from the dead, He overcame every spirit in opposition to Him. By His resurrection, Jesus proclaimed power over all demonic forces in your life. This means that whatever your storm is, God has allowed it, and it has been overcome through Christ—just knowing this should bring about a great blessing in your spirit. Behind every storm there is a blessing—God has assured us there is one. Why not view this time as a revelation from God, an opportunity to learn to trust Him, and a stepping stone to better things in the future. He’s assured us:

God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. (James 1:12 NLT)

For the Disciples, their blessing was acquiring greater faith in God which made them the greatest witnesses for Christ—what a blessing for you and I! When God allows a storm in your life… it has great purpose; if you miss the purpose, you may miss God’s will for your life.

________________________

God has assured us that there

is a blessing behind every storm.

When God allows a storm

in your life . . .

it has great purpose;

if you miss the purpose,

you may miss God’s will

for your life.

________________________

Every intimate part of our lives is no surprise to God. Many times, when He leads us into the storms, He’s leading us to a place of surrender and complete dependence upon Him. The storms aren’t necessarily to show us His incredible powers; although His love, mercy, and grace continually amaze even those with incredible faith. God doesn’t have to prove His power, just as He doesn’t have to prove His existence—it’s the obvious. We just have to open our lives and look around us. We don’t have to go very far to realize there is an amazing God who keeps the world in motion, and He has addressed every intricate detail which sustains life here on earth.

________________________

Your storms are more than just

the pain and suffering

on the surface.

Your storms are tools

in the hand of God—

He’s working to bring

about miracles in your life.

________________________

God is more interested in showing us the heart of who He is. God wants us to understand that our storms are more than just storms. They are more than just the pain and suffering on the surface. Our storms build a bridge to an intimate relationship with Him. The storms just give God another opportunity to demonstrate His unconditional love for us.

He wants you to understand, firsthand, what it feels like to reach out and have His hand grasp yours. He wants you to understand what it’s like to see His face and hear His voice. No one and nothing can simply give you this intimate understanding through witnessing. Others’ relationship with God can you lead you to Him, but He does the rest. God wants a very personal relationship with you…He wants you to experience a miracle in your own life. The Disciples had witnessed many miracles that Jesus had performed, yet they had not experienced a miracle for themselves; when Jesus calmed the storm, they were given a “personal” miracle.

God wants to give you greater knowledge of Himself, so that when the storms rage around you, you can have peace because you have learned that He is in control and there is nothing to fear. He wants you to be assured that He is with you, He will carry you, and He is your refuge and source of strength.

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1 NLT)

________________________

You can rest assured through

God’s Promises that

He will use every storm

for your good and His

greater purposes.

God always has a plan.

Trust Him—

get to the back

of the boat with Jesus.

________________________

When you understand your storms and grasp the fact that Jesus is in your boat, you, too, can experience a miracle in your storm. When you seek out God’s call to you through the storm, allowing Him to use it all for His purposes, your storms will bring about great blessings in your life. You’ll even find that your storms of life will be used by God to bless the lives of others! You can rest assured through God’s Promises…He will use every storm for your good and His greater purposes. God always has a plan. Trust Him. It’s your life He wants to use, but He can’t use you unless you’re in the back of the boat with Jesus—at rest, trusting Him. So, the begging question is,

“Where are you in the boat right now?”

Scriptures to Encourage You in the Storm

These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. (1 Peter 1:7 NLT)

So, be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. (1 Peter 1:6 NLT)

I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. (Psalm 16:8 NLT)

So be strong and take courage, all you who put your hope in the Lord! (Psalm 31:24 NLT)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT)

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectations of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us for we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:3 NLT)

Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. (James 4:8 NLT)

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. (Hebrews 4:16 NLT)

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1 NLT)

I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my sake,—yes, for my own sake! (Isaiah 48:10 NLT)

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going… (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10 NLT)

For you will rescue me from my troubles and help me to triumph ... (Psalm 54:7 NLT)

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. Give all your worries and care to God, for he cares about what happens to you. (1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT)

Do not fear anything except the Lord Almighty. He alone is the Holy one. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. He will keep you safe. (Isaiah 8: 12-14 NLT)

In quietness and in trusting confidence I find strength. (Isaiah 30:15 NLT)

It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27-28 NLT)

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. (2 Chronicles 20:12 NLT)

In quietness and confidence is your strength. (Isaiah 30:15 NLT)

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BONUS FEATURE:

1st Chapter of

empty.

Living Full of Faith

When Life Drains You Dry

Cherie Hill

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empty.

Living Full of Faith

When Life Drains You Dry

Cherie Hill

© 2012 by Cherie Hill

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

Scripture quotations marked "The Amplified Bible" (AMP) or "The Amplified New Testament" are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation and The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, Wheaton: Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked “NASB” are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright ©1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked "NCV™" are taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV®) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked "NLT" are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from The New King James Version / Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., Copyright © 1982. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Dedication

To Jesus,

Thank you for loving me enough

to meet me…at the well.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1                   Thirsty

Chapter 2                   At the Well

Chapter 3                   Poured Out

Chapter 4                   Full of Faith

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Thirsty

Empty. That word pretty much sums it up doesn’t it? When life leaves you at a loss for words…when you lose your job unexpectedly, when the doctor says cancer is what you’re now facing, when your spouse is living life out of control through addictions, when you find out the joy of having a child has now been tainted with “special needs,” when your “wayward” child has become completely lost, when your spouse for decades suddenly decides the marriage is over, when financial losses have shattered far too many dreams and driven you into deep despair, when emotional and physical abuse is all you have to wake up to each day, or when death strikes and there are no answers…in times like these, there seems to be no words, but “empty” is as close as you’ll ever get to describing how you feel.

Yet, although it’s a fitting word, it doesn’t even begin to explain the condition of the depths of our soul, when we’re “empty.” Our lives, which are compiled of moments, hours, days, and years, well up from hidden depths within us that reveal more about us than we’d like. It’s what’s on the surface that gives insight to what’s going on within, and at this point, none of it looks good. In our desperation, we attempt to fill and satisfy, what we perceive as our deepest needs, but nothing quenches our dying thirst. And “empty” takes on a whole new meaning.

Although the circumstances of our lives seem to aptly define “empty,” Webster’s definition says that empty is: containing nothing; not occupied or inhabited; lacking reality, substance, meaning, or value; having no purpose. The word seems “well” defined, but in many ways fails, miserably, to fully describe its true meaning.

We all find ourselves daily living with the harsh reality that life is hard and life hurts. We demand that life be fair, yet we’re well aware that it’s not. Life doesn’t waste any time in casting us into the depths of the pain through unbearable emptiness; although difficult to imagine, physical pain can sometimes be easier to endure than the ongoing anguish of loneliness, rejection, loss, and failures. Pain, physical or emotional, has a way of emptying our soul to the point that we’re certain we can’t go on. And as we plunge into the depths of our soul, we begin to doubt just about everything.

Through the emptiness, our soul is drained dry and we’re not concerned that we’ll crack beneath the pressure, we already have. We find our life being poured out. And faith seems to be irrelevant as we’re scrambling to pick up the pieces of what remains of our so called “personal relationship” with God. If He’s so personal, where is He? If He’s promised to never leave us nor forsake us, why does it seem as though He has?

When you’re empty, you wonder if your faith, up to this point, has meant anything at all. “Did I  ever really believe? Others seem to get it, why can’t I?” With tormenting questions like these flooding our soul, the emptiness only exasperates. The truth is: we don’t like to hurt. Pain is our enemy―but life has a way of ignoring our desires and forcing us to experience an emptiness that we can’t fill. And we’ll do anything to ease or eliminate the suffering of our soul.

The truth is, we may have been living our lives taking God at “His Word,” but we find ourselves hardly believing Him, at this point. He seems completely imperceptible by the five senses He’s given to us. We find ourselves saying something similar to John Updike’s characters in A Month of Sundays,

“I have not faith.

Or rather, I have faith

but it doesn’t seem to apply.”

We find ourselves, and our faith, thirsting in greater ways than we ever imagined. Not only are we dehydrated, but there’s not even a mirage to give us any kind of hope.

“O God, you are my God;

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land

where there is no water…

my soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me.”

Psalm 63.1,8 (ESV)

This entire Psalm is powerful, indeed, and makes a strong case of how we are to desire God with passionate pursuit. Yet it also suggests that we will never be satisfied. We’ve tried to fill and satisfy what cannot be satisfied by any of our desperate attempts. In fact, in our efforts to find satisfaction, we have fanned a thirst that can’t be quenched.

Our faith can take a tragic detour if we overlook this idea of “thirst.” While our souls are poured out, emptied by the troubles of this life, we find ourselves discouraged by the words of our Savior,

“But whoever drinks of the water

that I shall give him shall never thirst;

but the water that I shall give him

shall be in him a well of water

springing up into everlasting life.”

John 4:14 (AKJV)

With every intent to encourage us in our faith, in an effort to fill us, we find ourselves emptied even more, as His words haunt our spirit. Jesus said we’d be filled, yet we’re completely, and utterly, empty. Doubt begins to make its argument…  “God’s Word isn’t true, He said I’ll never thirst, yet I’m empty and thirsting more than I ever imagined possible.” God doesn’t appear to be keeping up His end of things. And as life is unraveling, we would expect faith to work. Reasoning within ourselves takes us to a place we never thought we’d be―full of unbelief. By all indications, seems like this case is closed and faith has no defense.

“When we get our spiritual house in order, we’ll be dead. This goes on. You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is making it in darkness. Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty.” ―Flannery O’Connor

Why is it that we’re thirsty, when He promised we’d never thirst? And if Jesus Himself said we’d never thirst, why are some of His last words so resounding throughout history (John 19:28 NIRV):

“I am thirsty.”

The One who IS Living Water knows our emptiness, as He takes our sin upon Himself. Sin separates us from God. And there will be a point in our lives, whether by our own wrongdoings or others, where we will fully know the pain of sin. And we will be thirsty. We will find ourselves with no strength to carry on.

“My strength is dried up…”

Psalm 22:15 (NIV)

Although what we endure in this life cannot even begin to compare with the suffering of the Cross, we simply can’t seem to convince our soul of that. The emptiness that consumes us seems fittingly comparable. We’re thirsty, and we wonder why.

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Psalm 63:1 (NIV)

In our emptiness, we long to be filled, but there are simple elements of faith that seem to get in the way. We can’t help but wonder, if we ARE walking in faith, why is it that we’re thirsty? Why are we carrying burdens at all? Where is God when our soul is parched in endless desperation? David’s Psalm could be our daily journal entry. His thirst written in Psalm 42 has now become full blown dehydration in Psalm 38, and we can relate:

“I am bent and bowed down greatly;

I go about mourning all the day long.

I am faint and sorely bruised

[deadly cold and quite worn out];

I groan by reason of the disquiet

and moaning of my heart.

My heart throbs, my strength fails me;

as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.”

Psalm 38: 6,8,10 (AMP)

With the passion of a deer panting for streams of water (Psalm 42:1), our faith plunges us into deeper thirst. Yet, as we thirst, our faith is poured out and we find ourselves believing “The Faith Lie.”

The Faith Lie

You’ve heard it…you’ve probably even believed it. You may have bet your faith on it…which is why you’re empty and hopeless amid the circumstances of your life. It’s a little phrase that goes like this:

“God will never give you more

than you can handle.”

Sounds good. It even seems to give us hope and strength to face one more day, but it’s a lie. You hear it often―you may even be continually assuring and encouraging yourself through its apparent comfort to your soul. As you face another day of complete emptiness, you find yourself struggling to continually believe that no matter what you face, God is never going to allow you to deal with more than you can handle―that brings reassurance to a spirit that is restless and hopeless. It may be what we want to hear, but it’s not what we NEED to hear. We need truth. And the truth is that although this wonderful little phrase has traveled through the generations, leaving a glimpse of hope in its wake, it’s not in the Bible. God has NEVER said that He won’t give us more than we can handle. What He has shown is, throughout history, He ALWAYS gives people MORE than they can handle.

“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked.

“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives,

we lose control of what’s happening to us,

and our lives become controlled by fate.

That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

―Paulo Coelho

So, where does this lie come from, and how has Truth been twisted? It comes from 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT):

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

We can’t be deceived, or our faith will fail―the verse is referring to “temptations,” not the “troubles” of life. We can look at nearly EVERY situation in the Bible where God shows up in miraculous ways and find that He ALWAYS gave people MORE than they could handle. That’s when God shows up on the scene of people’s lives. Moses didn’t part the Red Sea on his own. Daniel should have been devoured in a lion’s den. Who survives walking into a fiery furnace? Goliath should have crushed David, and Jonah should have been left for dead. The storm on the Sea of Galilee was obviously going to drown the Disciples, and even Jesus needed help carrying His Cross.

We glean even greater insight into this truth when we look to Paul the Apostle who found himself crushed, beyond his ability to endure. Here’s what we learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:8 and the first part of verse 9 (NLT):

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die.”

Hardly seems like a loving God would allow such saints to go through such anguish, but our faulty thinking is simply because we don’t understand His ways. It is out of His great love for them that He allowed them to face the impossible. Why is that? It’s because of the second part of verse 9 from 2 Corinthians (NLT):

“But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”

There’s purpose through the pain, there’s a reason for our emptiness. God ALWAYS gives us more than we can handle, in order to reveal what He is able to do through our faith in Him. We must be emptied of ourselves, so that God Himself can fill us―He wants to show us that prayer works. He wants to bring about miracles that go far beyond our imagination. He wants to display His power, presence, and glory. Without situations in life that we CAN’T handle, we’d never need God to show up. Why would we even need to pray at all? We’d never have the opportunity to see our own Red Seas parted. Who wants to miss out on that??

It’s critical to the survival of your faith that you stop believing the lie. Here’s the truth:

If God is only giving you what you CAN handle,

you’re not learning to depend upon God,

you’re not stepping out in faith,

and your faith isn’t growing.

In fact, if you’re facing situations that are far beyond your control…God is trusting you more than you trust Him. He obviously knows that He’s given you a measure of faith that is much more than you think. We need to clearly understand that faith is a journey that involves overwhelming disappointments, joys and sorrows, periods of waiting, and plain and simple long suffering that gives no evidence that it will ever end. The truth is, no matter how much we prepare, take precautions, and try to eliminate risks in life, we’ll never succeed. And faith is hard. Don’t let the lies about faith cause you to turn away from God, or worse yet, remake Him in your own image.

If we’ll leave the lie behind and move on in greater faith, knowing that every obstacle is an opportunity for faith to rise above it, we’ll find ourselves experiencing the peace that God promises to give us as we trust in Him. If Jesus emptied Himself, shouldn’t we also see it as a necessary part of our faith, instead of viewing it as God’s greatest failure in our lives.

“Have this mind among yourselves,

which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,

though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself,

by taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross”

Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV)

God’s goal: to bring us to a place where we realize we can’t do it without Him. It’s about bringing us to the Cross―as many times as it takes, so that our relationship with Him is the wellspring of our lives. Our place of emptiness is exactly where He needs us, in order that we might fully realize that our need for Him is greater than any other. (And all too often we need to be reminded of that.) If you’re empty, you can be sure you’re about to be filled. But first, you must clearly understand why it is you’re thirsty. You need to take a look at the emptiness and grasp the fullness of its purpose.

Empty

Before we can be filled, we need to grasp the full meaning of our emptiness. Our God speaks directly to us regarding our emptiness. He tells us, without hesitation, why we’re empty in Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV):

"My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

What’s a cistern? We certainly didn’t know we dug one and we definitely didn’t realize it was broken! The definition by Webster, gives us clear meaning: an artificial reservoir for storing liquids, especially water (italics mine). Confusion gets the best of us as we try, desperately, to understand our emptiness. But there’s no need for confusion, we’ve simply misunderstood the purpose of our lives; and in order to be filled, we need to be poured out…because sin, our faulty thinking, our idea that being “empty” is contrary to God’s best in our lives, keeps us from being filled. And here’s where we get a clear understanding of emptiness.

We’re empty because we’re more concerned about “feeling” better than finding God. We struggle because the sinful nature within us tells us that God exists for us, not that we exist for Him. And that’s normal―that’s our fallen human nature. And life has a way of tainting the Truth. The troubles of this world are so overwhelming that it’s difficult at best to even consider “living for God” and His purposes, when we’re consumed with needs that seem even greater than what God can meet.

Life seems to have a way of throwing us into such confusion and pain that we simply lose all hope―our joy is gone and nothing encourages us. We’re forced to face a truth we just can’t grasp: we can live obediently, believe God, practice our spiritual disciplines, walk in the fullness of Christ, but troubles still come…and we still find ourselves empty. We’re continually assured that we cannot escape this life, which seems like endless pain and problems. We can find ourselves being poured out, even in our yearning to be filled.

Through our daily struggles, we grasp the fact that simply “walking by faith,” following God’s plan, is not enough. It seems clear that even if we apply Biblical principles, we don’t always get what we want. That’s not the way we hoped faith worked.

What we really want through unpredictable struggles is someone we can trust. We want hope, joy, and peace amid all the uncertainty, pain, and endless confusion. And without someone we can trust through it all, we do one of two things: We either pretend things are better than they really are or we find a way to relieve the pain. When we look at our troubles, we see them as senseless and meaningless. The randomness of life seems to give evidence that God may very well not even exist at all.

When we can’t find God in the emptiness of our souls, we tend to throw up defense mechanisms that keep us from being thrown into an abyss. We deny how much we struggle and hurt, we ignore our unanswerable questions and we keep telling ourselves that everything will be alright. We stand firm in our faith, from all outward appearances, declaring our love for Jesus, our love for others, and even profess to be finding our supply of strength from streams of Living Water. And yet, we feel that if we were to hear, “Just trust God,” one more time, we might just be emptied enough to never want to be filled. In a moment of truth, when we’re consumed with relieving the pain behind our problems, we must come to grips with the fact that Christianity offers no simple formula for making life work the way we want it to. We want solutions to our problems, instead of a pathway to God. We disguise our selfish desires for temporary relief rather than allowing that pain, emptiness, to be the very thing that shows us that something inside of us that is desperately wrong.

We create our own obstacles to God. And if we only evaluate God by what we see and feel, we will continue to look to ourselves, loving and clinging to our lives, with all our heart and soul, instead of to God.

As we struggle through our emptiness, another lie seeps into our soul’s reasoning, when we so wrongfully believe that if only God would show up, we’d feel better and our troubles would disappear. But finding God has never been about finding Him. He’s always been there. We’re assured that if we look for Him, we’ll find Him. So that’s not the point.

“You will seek me and find me.”

Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)

It’s when we find God that we find ourselves. It’s in developing a passion to know Him that we are filled. And until we are filled with a passion to know Him in greater ways than we know Him at this very moment, we will never view our emptiness as an opportunity to experience God in greater ways than we could ever imagine. It’s in understanding the depths of our emptiness that we learn where to go to be filled. But, too often we’re consumed with the reality of our emptiness and we’re unable to get to God.

When emptiness descends upon us, our soul can cry out in gut-wrenching pain; unspeakable, unthinkable pain. We find ourselves unable to endure what we know to be true: life is painful and nothing satisfies. We find no relief, nothing is certain, there is no rest, and our greatest joys have been far outweighed by our present sorrows. We struggle down far too many paths that all lead back to ourselves, and we’re unable to find our way to God. We plead and hope for God to speak, but in a moment when we need Him most, there is nothing. Silence. We find ourselves beyond the reach of anyone but God and we’re suddenly faced with an emptiness that we never thought possible because we can’t even find Him.

As we pause for a moment and take a look at our lives, we realize that we have dug our own cistern, and clearly it is broken. We become consumed with supplying our own souls, arranging our lives around meeting our needs, instead allowing God to fill us with His fullness.

We’re passionately pursuing everything but Him alone, and we find ourselves…empty.

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

Luke 17:33 (ESV)

If we apply this to our poured out lives, we find that it reads, “Empty yourself and you’ll be filled.” Seems simple enough―but there’s nothing simple about it. We find our souls in twisted frustration because emptying ourselves is contrary to our two primary goals in life: (1) find a way to achieve happiness and (2) influence and manipulate people and their resources to cooperate with achieving that goal. Even as Christians, we claim heaven as our home, immigrants in a foreign land, but we live like we’re natives to the earth. It seems an impossible feat to have a passion for something other than our immediate satisfaction, and our temporary desires matter far more than God’s glory. We work feverishly to fill ourselves and only end up emptier.

We dig our own cisterns because we know that life is overwhelming and intolerable and that truth is simply too painful to admit. We’d rather lie to ourselves and dig our own wells, than to admit to the terrifying truth that we desperately need God—a God who seems more absent than present.

Our emptiness brings us to the end of ourselves. And it’s in our emptiness that we learn that our deepest desires are inconsolable.

“If I find myself in a desire in which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”―C.S. Lewis

We are thirsty for a reason. We are empty, so that we will have the need to draw water. Our emptiness comes from God. Nothing in this life will satisfy. Try as we might, we continually wake up and look in the mirror, only to find ourselves resembling this guy:

Insatiable―always thirsty, never satisfied. God was right, we’ve dug our own cisterns and they are broken. And it’s important that we understand the cistern, because God wants to show us something. He wants to meet with us, face to face, one on one, but we need to have a full understanding of our current condition.

We’re empty because we’re using a cistern. A cistern is a container that comes in various shapes and sizes around the world. They are used for the purpose of storing water, both above and below ground, but it can’t do what a “well” does. A well taps into a supply of groundwater, like a spring or underground stream. If you know anything about wells, they are built by digging into the earth and inserting reinforcements, so that the interior walls of the well do not collapse.

Wells have been used for centuries and historically people have taken advantage of natural springs and built their settlements near them. People could easily access the water by lowering their buckets, filling them, and pulling them up. Whenever they needed water, they would go to the well.

Cisterns, on the other hand, are designed to store water, not tap into an existing, continual water source. Cisterns were primarily used for collecting rain water―not the same as spring water, mind you. And historically, cisterns were used in dry regions to store water, in the event that a well failed or rainfall ceased. People used them as a backup water supply. With a cistern, someone has to fill it with water. They aren’t wells, which provide a constant “source” of water.

So, what does this have to do with our emptiness in life? A lot. We continually use cisterns to satisfy our thirst, God wants us coming to Him, The Well. We try to contain our happiness and joy within the things of this world, but we’re in a dry region, a sinful one. And God knows that our cisterns will fail to be filled, or worse, simply crack and be rendered useless from being dried out. We fill our cisterns (bank accounts) with money and it runs out…then begins the endless cycle of having to fill it again. We fill our hearts with relationships which help us feel loved…and people hurt us. We try to dull our pain by filling new cisterns of alcohol and drugs, or by consuming our time with useless things to feel temporary relief from the reality that the cistern is not supplying the demands of our “needs”―it has to continually be filled. We’re exhausted from the endless job of filling it and we’re left empty.

Our emptiness directs us to The Well, God Himself. It’s in accepting our emptiness that we can understand how “being thirsty,” helps us to grasp that nothing we can do or experience in this world will ever satisfy us with what our soul yearns for most―we want to be filled . . . in a way that we are satisfied, completely. Our greatest desire is to never be thirsty again.

But our ways are hardly ever like God’s. We need to meet with God over this matter. We need Him to speak to us and break His silence. But, before we meet God, face to face, we need to understand more clearly how it is He works, when it comes to emptiness. We need to understand “The Empty Principle.”

The Empty Principle

Too often, we get it all wrong in life. We assume that God works the way we think He should and we set ourselves up for mammoth disappointments. God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8)…the sooner we accept that, the better off we’ll be. When it comes to emptiness, once again, we get it wrong.

In our daily life, we endlessly strive to preserve what is precious and end up losing it all, and more. We tend to believe that if we’re empty, we have nothing left. And that is certainly true if we’re not connected to God and living out His purposes for our lives. But, if we’re walking in faith, believing His Promises, trusting in Him fully, then He is going to REQUIRE that we’re empty, so that He can fill us and we can be poured out. Huh? God’s way in “emptiness” is this: The more you pour out, the more there is to pour out. Put another way: The emptier we are, the more we can be filled. Ahhh, that’s better. But it still doesn’t make much sense. We think this through and can’t help but reason that if we’re “empty,” we have nothing left, right? Wrong.

We’ll need to go to 2 Kings 4 in the Bible and take a look at this principle…“The Empty Principle.” The whole thing starts with Elijah going to heaven. Evidently, the sons of the prophets were watching as a chariot of fire came down and took him. And there was a woman who was the wife of one of the sons of the prophets…who died in the whole event.

So, this widow, goes to Elisha (don’t confuse him with Elijah―not one in the same), and tells him that she has nothing left,  her husband’s creditors are coming after her and they are coming to take her two sons away from her to be slaves (2 Kings 4:4). So, Elisha asks her what she has in her home and she tells him she only has one jar of olive oil. In her mind, life is over―she’s empty in more ways than she can count. But, through “The Empty Principle,” she’s got more than enough. Here’s what happens:

3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”

But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

A miracle. The most famous last words before God shows up are: “I have nothing.” Put many other ways: “I can’t go on. My pain is too deep. I’m empty.” We need to grasp this principle. It’s vital. We’ll never be filled until we do. Here’s the promise through the “Empty Principle”: When God is your Source, there is never a shortage. Through this woman’s emptiness, we’re shown a remarkable miracle and a profound spiritual principle.

We believe that we need to be filled in order for God to use us, but God is looking for those who are empty. If we’re empty, we can be filled. It’s actually quite simple. We look at the widow and see that as long as there was something “empty” that could be filled in the widow’s home, the oil didn’t stop flowing. As long as we’re empty, God can flow through us. Grasp this truth: Emptiness is not the end, it’s the beginning.

We can understand this principle even further as we grasp the point of this miracle: As long as God has empty vessels, people who are wholly yielded to Him, He pours out His Spirit without measure.

“…for God gives the Spirit without limit.”

John 3:34 (NIV)

But, when the vessels have been filled, they must be poured out. If God seems to be emptying your life, removing just about everything you count on and hold dear, you can be sure He’s at work…He’s about to dig a well in your soul.

If we’re the ones filling ourselves, with the passions of this world, we can’t be filled by God― we’re doing the digging and the filling, not God. And we’ll work endlessly to keep filling because we’ll never be satisfied…and we can’t live on empty. But, everything we fill ourselves with dulls our ability and desire to be filled by God. Instead of seeing our emptiness as the end, we need to start seeing it as the greatest opportunity to be filled by God Himself. Our problem is that we tend to feel as though we should be filled before we can be poured out―God wants us empty.

It’s in our emptiness that we will be filled by His Spirit…to experience a fullness that we have never imagined. What we learn through this principle is that when you rely in faith on God’s provision as your Source, there is never a shortage. It’s an internal “well” that just continues to pour into you as you pour it out. So, if we’re thirsty, it simply means we’re not being poured out. Although, we’d gladly argue endlessly over that point. It’s through “The Empty Principle” that we learn…as long as God has empty vessels, who are wholly yielded to Him, He pours out His Spirit into us and we will overflow like rivers of living water.

“Whoever believes in me,

as Scripture has said,

rivers of living water

will flow from within them.”

John 7:38 (NIV)

And here’s the sad truth: far too many believers have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them, but not flowing out of them. We need to deeply understand “The Empty Principle.” And we need to fully comprehend that we need to go to the Source that will truly satisfy. Even Job knew this great need and he knew he had to go to the Source Job 23:3 (NIV):

“If only I knew where to find God,

I would go to his dwelling.”

When we’re thirsty, there’s something we need, desperately. But, it’s not what we think. What we thirst for doesn’t even compare with what God wants to give us. Our prayers fall far short of God’s best in our lives. He wants to give us so much more than we ever ask for (Ephesians 3:20). And most times, He does, even when we least deserve it―that’s His grace.

So, we hear His promises, we long for all that He gives…the FULLNESS of life. We know what Jesus has said,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14 (NIV)

and we realize that Jesus has what we need. He offers what will quench our undying thirst, and we find ourselves repeating the wise words of a woman who was just as thirsty as we are:

“Give me this water

so that I won’t get thirsty

and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

John 4:15 (NIV)

You’re ready to be filled. You desperately want your thirst satisfied, so that you will never thirst again, but you look for God and can’t seem to find Him anywhere. Yet, you need to look no further…He’s been waiting for you. He wants to meet with you, one on one…at the well.

.

About the Author

Cherie Hill is the founder of ScriptureNow.com

Ministry which brings the Word of God

into over 30 countries around the world.

She has a BA in Psychology and is trained

in Biblical Counseling through the AACC.

She is an Amazon.com Bestselling

Christian Living Author,

ranked in the top 20 authors

for Religion and Spirituality,

who spends her time at the feet of Jesus.

Bestselling Author of:

WAITING on GOD

Hope Being Gone

empty.

(Living Full of Faith When Life Drains You Dry)

BE STILL

(Let Jesus Calm Your Storms)

Beginning at The End

(Finding God When Your World Falls Apart)

THE WAYS of GOD

(Finding Purpose Through Your Pain)

FAITH Under Construction

Table of Contents

Other Bestsellers by Cherie Hill

copyright

Can God Be Trusted?

Chapter 1: Can God Be Trusted?

Chapter 2: Work In Progress

Chapter 3: Hope Being Gone

Chapter 4: Perfect Peace

Excerpt from BE STILL