God sent the storm
Happy New Year! My heart is incredibly grateful that God allowed us to see 2022. Many didn’t make it, but He preserved our lives to carry on His work.
What a great privilege, amen?
Today, during my early morning devotion time, God sparked a memory. It must have been a few years ago when a dog without a leash ran up our street and chased my youngest son, Kaleb.
I wasn’t outside to witness the dramatic event, but my husband Kenya told me all about it. He said our little Kaleb ran so fast that the soles of his sneakers grazed the dog’s mouth as he dashed away!
“That boy was running for his life!” Kenya said, chuckling.
Thankfully, the dog never did catch Kaleb because of the lightning-fast speed he inherited from Kenya, a former high school track star.
Oh, how I wish attacks, threats, and storms couldn’t catch me! Wouldn’t that be great? But, alas, this is not the way life works. Unlike the dog chasing Kaleb, sickness has caught me. Mental anguish has caught me. Grief has caught me. Trauma has caught me. Adversity has caught me.
I’m sure a few things have caught up with you too on more than one occasion.
I have lived long enough to know that it does not matter how anointed you are, how faithful to God you are, how steadfast in prayer you are, none of us gets to escape storms. Not only that, friend, but there are seasons when God personally sends a storm to fulfill His divine will.
Oh yes, He does indeed.
We serve an all-powerful God who both causes and calms storms. Even so, on occasion, we make the mistake of crediting Satan with the work of the Lord. We assume the devil conjured up the storm to crush and destroy us, when such is not always the case.
“This storm will not destroy or defeat you. It will propel you into destiny and make you a living testimony of God’s power!”
For instance, in Jonah 1, we see Jonah the Prophet getting on a boat heading in the opposite direction from his assignment. He didn’t want to go where God told him to go and was foolishly attempting to run away from the Lord. So, God—not Satan, but God—sent a storm. He did that with the intent of getting stubborn Jonah to preach repentance to the wicked Assyrians in Nineveh.
As the popular Bible story goes, the only way to quiet the storm was to throw Jonah overboard. Once this was done, the disobedient preacher met a huge fish that God prepared, and it swallowed Jonah whole. After this traumatic experience, Jonah obeyed God, preached to the Assyrians, and they were saved.
Scripture draws parallels between the life of Jonah and the life of Jesus Christ. Jonah is a symbol of the Messiah—something Jesus referenced in Luke 11:29, Matthew 12:39, and Matthew 16:4. The “sign of Jonah,” as Christ called it, drew a direct comparison between the Old Testament prophet’s three-day stay in the fish’s belly and Jesus’ three-day process of burial and resurrection.
When God sent the storm Jonah’s way, He knew it would push Jonah to participate in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Simply put, the storm ushered Jonah into divine purpose. Despite how uncomfortable it was for Jonah to be in “the belly of hell” (Jonah 2:2), God used hellish circumstances to accomplish a Heavenly mission.
In similar fashion, you have endured some storms that God sent to accomplish His purpose. Those storms, though extremely painful, forceful, and treacherous, were never meant to destroy you but to push you into purpose.
You see, there are great things God wants to do for you and through you that can only be accomplished by the storm. I know going through hard times can frustrate you, disappoint you, and make you wonder if you’ll really make it. But God is telling you, the storm He sent is part of His master plan.
After this, God is going to use you as an effective witness for Him. Others will see your life and want to know Jesus.
In Jonah 1:15-16, the sailors aboard the ship were certainly impacted by the storm in this way. After they cast Jonah into the sea and saw God calm the storm, these worshipers of false gods suddenly feared the Lord and offered sacrifices to Him. Without the storm, they would not have seen the power of the true and living God on display.
Your storm of sickness will show somebody that God is a healer. The storm of loss will reveal Him as a restorer. The storm of lack will show Him to be a provider. The impossible-to-overcome storm will demonstrate that with God, all things are possible, and He is greater than any storm.
To remind you of this truth, I’m stirring Psalm 89:9 ISV into your cup of inspiration, which says, “You rule over the majestic sea; when its waves surge, you calm them.”
As you drink down the contents of your cup, know that God is about to calm some storms in your life. He sent me to tell you, He will get glory from your miraculous testimony. Just you wait and see!
Now, let’s pray.
God, I thank You for both sending and calming the storm, because whatever You do, I know it will work for my good. I believe that something amazing is coming from my divinely-ordained struggle, and through my testimony, others will see Your power and be drawn to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you desire prayer, please allow me, along with my intercessory prayer team, to stand in faith with you for breakthrough. We would be so honored. We have seen God work over and over again. There is power in agreement. Click here to request prayer now.
As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!
