Some might be dreading this part of Psalm 107 about the storm.
Maybe you haven't been through a storm yet and can't image what that would look like. Maybe you're thinking:
"Would I still love the Lord in it? What would it cost me?"
Maybe you're feeling anxious about the season of a storm in your life.
Others may be in the middle of a storm right now and thinking "I just need some encouragement. I need to know I'm not alone in this."
Maybe you're just wanting a fresh word from the Lord from scripture.
The thing about storms is that we don't have any control about when it hits or how it hits us.
The men on the ship in scripture were working men on the ship. Their job was hazardous to say the least. Out of nowhere a storm hits.
The same with us. We're going along in our life and out of nowhere, unexpectedly a storm comes.
We need to realize that life doesn't always go according to our plans.
We'll come to the place in our storms where we will want to find our hope in His steadfast love.
Lauren then tells several stories of her storms of miscarriages and her husband Matt's brain tumor and surgery. She encourages us that the grace for our storms will be there.
God will be the stability in that moment.
Look at Isaiah 33:5-6:
God is supremely esteemed. His center holds. Zion brims over with all that is just and right. God keeps your days stable and secure - salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus, and best of all, Zion's treasure, Fear-of-God. (the Message)
For those who are in the storm: He will be your stability in it.
For those who are afraid, anxious about the storm that is coming: Take heart that He will be with you in it.
We live in a fallen world and storms will come.
For Lauren, the Lord sovreignly was in the storm of Matt's illness and brought healing through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
Lauren said it wasn't her counting on his healing that kept her through it, but counting on the Lord being present in the middle of it.
Her challenge for us this week is that no matter what storm it is or where we are in the storm, or anxious about one coming, that we would find all the ways that He is present.
Our storms, many times, will pluck up any other anchor we are holding onto for our stability. He will put in us deeper anchors through our storms - the anchor of His steadfast love.
He is the Lord of our storms.
Maybe the outcome isn't healing.
Maybe the outcome isn't what we had expected, but we still have a hope to cling to.
We have an anchor of stability in Jesus Christ.
We have hope in His steadfast love.
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