You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.
Isaiah 25:4
Make no mistake about it: the Christian life does not exempt you from experiencing times of trouble. The storms will be ominous and threatening. It will be a time of darkness and danger. The dark clouds may be so thick and intense that they will seem to enshroud you and cut you off from God. Sometimes they will be brief. At other times, they will seem unending.
God providentially designs some storms for His children to test and try them. His storms purge from our lives those things that are not eternal. God uses them to separate us from our love affair with the temporal, trite, and trivial, so our lives will not one day be reduced to ashes. These stormy times of darkness and danger are also part and parcel of the Christian life, because we live in a fallen and rebellious world where everything is spiritually upside down and the natural realm is out of balance.
While your storm may leave you with some scars, your relationship with Him is totally secure. Remember that He loves you with an everlasting love. Jesus promised that nothing or no one can snatch you from His Father’s hand (John 10:28). He has you in His eternal grip—and no storm can wash you out of His nail-scarred hands!
Jesus came to meet you and minister to you in your storm. He came to comfort you when you mourn (Matthew 5:4). He promises to take you through victoriously to the other side. And there He will give to you “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3).
Whatever storms you have been through in the past, whatever storms you are in right now, or whatever storms you will face in the future, only Jesus can be your sure anchor and secure harbor! Only in Christ can you find a “shelter from the storm.”
“It Is Well with My Soul” is a hymn written by a successful businessman, Horatio Spafford. The ship carrying his family went down at sea in a great storm. His wife was saved, but his beloved daughters were lost.
When he visited the place where the ship sank, he looked into the deep, dark waters and penned these words: “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.”
That’s my prayer for you, my friend. I trust that whatever storm you have gone through and whatever you have lost, it is still “well with your soul!”
Now, with your spiritual anchor securely fastened to Him, I pray that you will also reach out to others who are being devastated by life’s storms. Just as Jesus has ministered to you in your storm, I pray that you will minister to others in their storms with the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus!