Navigating storms

We live in a broken, fallen world. The perfection that God intended got contaminated by sin bringing with it death and destruction, corrupting the image of God in each of us. Now it has to be said that none of this, nothing of the resulting difficulties that are going on in your life, my life or the world generally has taken God by surprise. He is not sat up in the clouds, distant from the turmoil and uncaring but equally he is not sat up there rocking to and fro on the throne, wracked with anxiety trying to work out how to sort out the mess we have made. Every issue we face, has a solution and (spoiler alert) it is in Jesus and it has already been sorted. Woohoo!

God is not stressed because he had the solution, BEFORE he even made the world! It says in Revelation 13:8 that the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. Being outside of time, he has always seen the end from the beginning, he is Alpha and Omega. 

Right now, in the midst of whatever storm or trial is in our lives, we can give thanks that the one who knows all things, the one who is outside time, the one who sits on the the throne and laughs at the enemy’s efforts (Psalm 2), is not fazed and is ready, willing and able to walk us through and out the other side of the valley of darkness, of the impenetrable wall we are facing. He knows the end from the beginning and he has a plan.

Whoever needs to hear this, know today that the one who brought Daniel through the lion’s den, the Israelites through the Red Sea; Shadrach, Mishak and Abednego through the fire,; Joseph through slavery, prison, betrayal and false accusation, and many more similar stories of victory, that same God, He is with you and will lead you through … if you let him. Nothing you are facing is impossible to Him. Nothing. 

In the context of the storms we go through, I have been thinking about the fact that Jesus says in John 14:27 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

What I have been contemplating is Jesus in the storm on the lake, asleep in the boat, clearly untroubled and at peace and then the reality of our experience of going through the storms of life and how, although He says He gives us peace, so many of us struggle to hold on to it in our storms and we can end up running around like rabbits in the headlights of a car, looking as scared and troubled as those who don’t have the Prince of Peace in their lives. So why is this? 

One key to the answer I believe is in this verse from Colossians 3:15, in the Amplified version here: 

Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise]. To this peace indeed you were called as members in one body [of believers]. And be thankful [to God always].

I wonder what the “controlling factor” in our hearts is right now. So much of the battle in the storms of life does not take place in the actual events that are contributing to the storm but in how we respond to it. It is about what gets to influence our responses, our actions, and where our thoughts go. The battle is indeed in our minds and hearts. Our heart beliefs will dictate our thinking, our reactions in the moment. For example, if I believe in my heart that I am totally alone, vulnerable and isolated in my storm, my thinking and my responses will go down pathways of fear, of self-protection and of all sorts of negative reactions. However, if I genuinely believe in my heart that I am never alone, that my Heavenly Father knows my every need and provides for me, and is trustworthy to help me walk through it, I am able to walk with different mindsets, with faith and confidence and lean on him and those he has placed around me.

One of reason we can ”count it all joy” (James 1:2], genuinely, one of the reasons to “be thankful” is that every problem, every difficult situation, every storm, offers opportunities to experience different aspects of God’s character and to grow in my relationship with him. One of my questions at the moment each day is:

God, who do you want to be for me today? 

As I ask Him this I know that He understands better than I do what I need and my experience has been that as He tells me, it helps me understand where my emotions are. I think it is easy for me to believe my own PR and think that I am walking in peac but then as He comes and meets me in the way He knows I need, I realise that my heart beliefs, my deepest emotions didn’t necessarily line up with what I was saying. He helps me rectify the disconnect between what I am saying and what I am really believing which is evidenced in my reactions and my behaviour. Let’s be real, I usually know the right response in any given situation, the right Christian answer that I am supposed to give but it is not always where my heart is. I have realised that this phrase from Psalm 51 is a prerequisite to living in that place of shalom peace:

You desire truth in the innermost parts

We need to be honest with ourselves about where we really are, in order for Him to meet us there, otherwise we are trying to meet him somewhere we are not – tricky! So when I don’t know whether I am really believing the truth from God’s perspective, or from my own unhealed beliefs, I ask Him! 

God, what lies am I believing about this situation?  God, what am I scared of? 
What do I think ‘might’ happen? 

In truth, some of the things we think ‘might happen’ may well be a possibility but we will come back to that thought. We also need to have a realistic view of what peace looks like. Meditating recently on Psalm 46:10 

Be still and know that I am God

I realised that my concept of this verse looked like sitting by some gentle stream surrounded by beauty, listening to the birds and escaping from the realities of any difficulties or storms. God reminded me that the stillness spoken of here is not necessarily external but more an internal reality of stillness. This is good because we cannot always access that sweet spot in nature and sit for hours beside an idyllic stream, whereas the internal reality of the Prince of Peace within is always available. 

Back to the Colossians 3 verse quoted above, it seems that there is a prescription that God has given us for walking in peace. There are many aspects to this that I could talk about but I want to focus on two more keys today. 

The first one, which we touched on already a little bit, is evident in the Colossians verse but is also littered through scripture, (have a look later!). For now, we will look at this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Give thanks. It sounds simple, right? In ALL circumstances. What?? The key is IN not necessarily FOR, although I am beginning to realise that we can even thank Him sometimes for the difficult issues because we know without a doubt that He has a solution and the bonus is that we get to grow in Him and experience Him in a different or deeper way. Honestly, I don’t always reach this place but more than I used to! The reality is there is always something we can be thanking God for. There is always something to celebrate, really. At the very least we are still breathing, God is still on His throne and He still loves us. There IS hope. James 1:17 reminds us why we can thank Him and there is a truth in Romans 8:28 that we love to quote, that He is continually bringing good, for those that love Him. 

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father.

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.

And so we can be thankful. Thanksgiving is powerful and transformative because, as we focus on thanking God, it makes us aware of His presence. It refocuses our attention on Him and His reality. In this place the influence of the storm diminishes in the magnification of our God. In this place, we get a more heavenly perspective. We become more open and more able to receive God’s thoughts on our situation. His thoughts about it are not like ours. 

We get to choose in that place of hearing His perspective, whether we want to allow His narrative or ours to control our responses. I love the phrase in the Amplified version of Colossians 3:15 “deciding and settling questions that arise”. We get to decide to allow the peace of Christ, that comes from walking with Him through the storm, to settle any questions. His peace, that inner calm, the awareness of Christ within, is what holds me steady. His presence with me IN the boat, my hand in His throughout the journey. So thanksgiving … (Psalm 100:4 in the Passion translation)

You can pass through his open gates with the password of praise. Come right into his presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to him and affectionately bless his beautiful name!

We are told many times not to fear and not to worry, to take courage and face the giants in our land, whatever they are. Those of bold, courageous faith are celebrated. Faith pleases God. But we tend towards anxiety, stress, worry, and fear. So what do we do with those thoughts that lead us into fear and worry about a situation? Worry and fear, at a basic level, are meditation on what the enemy is doing. But there is another important key in our prescription for peace at play here. We know and quote the verse in 2 Corinthians 10:5 

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

This verse implies choice and conscious effort, a decision to not allow our thoughts, our emotions, to be in charge, to not allow worry and fear to be the influencers in our response. This verse implies that we determinedly decide and set our faces towards whatever God’s opinion is of the matter at hand, the storm we are in. That is the walk of faith – choosing to believe God, even if the circumstances look the complete opposite … “Jesus sent us to the other side of this lake so, even if it looks like we will drown right now in the storm, how can I engage with faith in this moment?” 

It is easy to say the faith-filled things when looking at someone else’s circumstances, to deliver the fridge-magnet responses we know we are supposed to believe.  But in the face of our own storm, there is a very real temptation to say “Aaargh! Look at those waves!” So how do we stay in that place of peace? I believe that there is another passage that is so important in Philippians 4:4-9 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Here it is in black and white, the complete prescription for how to manage our storms and live in peace. It is all here. The fact that God is with us, he is near. He has not abandoned us, He is walking with us, very close. The fact that He is our source of help, as Psalm 46 reminds us.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Giving the situation to Him, giving Him all our thoughts and worries and fears and choosing to trust Him. And then the key I want to finish on, not just taking captive the negative thoughts that try to take us down the roads of anxiety and worry and fear but, since you cannot remove a thought and leave you mind in neutral, thinking about nothing, THIS is so important …

What am I choosing to dwell on, to meditate on?

We are told, in clear, simple and unambiguous words what to do with our thoughts, our minds, what to think about. It couldn’t be more clear but how often to do we do it? So often when I talk to people who are full of fear and worry, or when I lose my own peace in a situation, I can trace it back to here and to the question, “where have my thoughts gone?” Have I been thinking about such things as that which is: 

True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy?

Or have I been contemplating what might go wrong, the things I am afraid of, the possible disasters? Have I been thinking of ways I can fix the situation in my own strength, going round and round it, in my head, trying to find solutions. As I contemplate it, with God, can I find His opinion on some of these questions and allow my mind, my heart, to meditate on that? Can I ask Him, in relation to this storm:

What is true, authentic and real? What is noble and honourable? What is right and just? What is pure? What is lovely, beautiful, and compelling? What is admirable, commendable, and of good report? What is excellent and of virtue? What is worthy of praise?

In answer to these questions, there will be things that I can focus on and quite naturally they will lead me back into thanksgiving as I meditate on those and as I give God thanks for the good that I already see and the good that I know will come, it readjusts my thinking away from enemy focus and back into focus on the one who is the solution in all things. And then His supernatural peace has access to my heart. He has given us a prescription for peace. Let’s try and remember to take our medicine! I’ll leave you, with this scripture to meditate on from Isaiah 26:3 (Amplified version):

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.