Strength to Rise Above Every Storm



Strength to Rise Above Every Storm

 “The boat was filling up with water, they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master , Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. The storm stopped and all was calm! Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” Luke 8:22-25 NLT

I listened with intent interest the year I was about ten, to a story around the church campfire about keeping our eyes on God and not the storm.

Our counselor was a great story teller and began by saying, “The weather was changing from sunny skies to skies filled with bulging thunder clouds. The wind was picking up and dust devils spun crazy-like across the fields. People stopped what they were doing to look up at a sizeable storm approaching fast. But to my surprise my grandmother was smiling as she looked up into the sky and was pointing out something there for me to see.”

“What is it?” I asked her squinting hard to see.

“I see the eagle, who looks to God and not the storm. He trusts the Lord to get him above the storm and never worries how he will get through it. “

 He shared how it’s true the eagle does know when a storm is approaching long before it breaks. It will fly to some high area and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is able to soar above it. The eagle doesn’t escape the storm, it simply uses the storm to lift it higher.

As I grew up I found that God does the very same for us. He uses the storm to lift us higher and closer to Him, He uses it to build our strength, our faith and our hope. He may take us around them, high above them, or He may choose to hold our hand tightly to get through them.

 Through the years there were many storms too big for me to fly above, too large to soar over and too powerful to get through on my own strength. I learned God can do all three. He will be right beside us, He blesses us with courage and strength to endure and uses the Holy Spirit wind to rise us above every storm.

“God does not give us overcoming life-He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength….But a saint can “be of good cheer” even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.”   Oswald Chambers -My Upmost for His Highest

“Strength to Rise Above Every Storm” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© June 25, 2015

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 [BK1]

Flower Arrangement of Faith



 Flower Arrangement of Faith

When I was about ten years old my best friend’s mother encouraged me to come with them to a flower show way across town. When there they insisted I also enter a flower arrangement for children my age. I laughed at such a thought! But they insisted that any flower and any vase would do fine.

But when I told my mother she laughed and said, “What a foolish waste of time!”

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” John 15:10 NIV

With no support at home I was filled with doubt and certain I would be an embarrassing failure. But it just so happened at this time in my life, God led me to be with this friend and be a part of her whole family who all loved Jesus.

I was wearing my doubt all over my face and the mother of my friend said to me, “Pray and trust in Jesus.”

As I went to search for flowers, all I could find were some late fall chrysanthemums. I knew not to take any of my mother’s vases and only thing I thought would do was a coke bottle! I hid in the garage as I arranged some sprigs from the pine tree, and a few bright yellow mums. Soon my friend’s mother came and off it went to be judged.

The next evening after our supper mother answered the phone and I heard her say, “What? Say that again. She what? Yes, I’ll be sure and tell her.”

My heart gave a big thump in my chest thinking here it comes, my mother is going to tell me she was right, this was a foolish idea.

 To my shock, mother came over to me and gave me a huge hug and said, “You didn’t tell me what you did! Hey! You won! You won a blue ribbon for the most unusual flower arrangement!”

When we keep our hearts filled with hope, with child-like faith we will always find ourselves continually in the keeping of Christ’s precious love. And sometimes too, our prayers may be rewarded in the most surprising and special ways.

The lesson for me was more than winning a blue ribbon for a few faded flowers in a coke bottle ― it was all about how one flower arrangement filled with faith will make us all winners of God’s great faithfulness.

“When in doubt-pause

When fearful-pause

When weary-pause

When stressed-pause

And when you pause-pray.”  

Anonymous

 

“The Flower Arrangement of Faith” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© June 9, 2015

Sea to Shore



Sea to Shore

A storm was brewing and declaring itself with gusts of wind whirling down from black clouds pressing in fast over the Pacific Ocean. The white capped waves were rolling and crashing high up against the shoreline rocks and bluffs.

 

From the vantage point of the second story window that day I watched as a man and woman strolled slowly along the beach seemingly unconcerned and unaware of the great storm coming  or the power of the sea intensifying up behind them.

 

Did they realize it is God our Creator who draws the imaginary line in the sand commanding the sea to stop and then withdraw again? Did they not know it is He who watches over us along every shoreline we wander?

“…Should you not fear me? declares the LORD. “Should you not tremble in my presence?

 I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.

The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.”

Jeremiah 5:22 NIV

One learns to fear and respect the oceans ability to rush into shore past that invisible line of demarcation any time of year along the Washington coast. The locals here will warn all newcomers how the sea can send sneaker waves rushing to shore frighteningly fast and catch a person unaware and it is able to carry them out to sea even after the storms have past.  

 

If we were to write down everything God has created for us, for all He has provided and blessed us with, we could not count or measure them for there would be more than all the grains of sand along the seashores of our lives. Worship lifts us out of self-thinking and reminds us how great thinking about great God is.

“No one ever said at the end of his days, “I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul.” J.C. Ryle

 

“Sea to Shore” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© June 3, 2015