Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing Jehovah-Jireh...
The long arm of God...
Shalom!
Storms come! Storms go! Some storms stay! When it comes to the weather that is a partial truth but when it comes to life/living that is completely true to a lesser or greater degree in each one of us. For me the storm that stays is my relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s true! The one relationship we humans can count on for peace is always stormy, yet out of our stormy relationship comes Storms of Peace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If it sounds like I’ve somehow lost a few “marbles” I can assure you I haven’t. Yet me explain how I see our relationship with the Trinity.
There are times when the storms in our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are created as we experience “things” for which we have no control over. That storm will rage for awhile but it is soon replaced with a bigger one, and that storm is created as the Father seeks to brings us back into a relationship with Him. The scenario I’ve written about in this paragraph has come out of my own experience this past week or so. As you know if you’ve followed the Glory Seed Blog I have pulmonary fibrosis. These past few days I’ve been in what can be called a crisis mode. Which has not only put my wellbeing in a tailspin but also my faith not in God but my faith in my ability to stay connected to Him.
Experiencing the distance between myself and God becoming wider and wider and not being able to stop it is heart breaking to say the least. It’s like voice from out of the storm saying, “God, I don’t trust you anymore.” Yet at the same time I’m praying, “God, strengthen me, help me!” I have no clue as to why God allows our storms to rage out of control but at a time of His choosing suddenly His Peace Storm swallows ours and we experience the Intimacy of God. The Psalmist describes it this way. “He reached down from heaven and took me and drew me out of my great trials. He rescued me from deep waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me—I who was helpless in their hands. On the day when I was weakest, they attacked. But the Lord held me steady. He led me to a place of safety, for he delights in me.” (Psalm 18:16–19, The Living Bible)
The “me storms” and the “God’s Peace Storms” are the ones that don’t go away. While it’s true they are not necessarily an everyday happening they don’t totally go away. I still have pulmonary fibrosis and while the me storm is gone for now and I am living in God’s “place of safety” yet potential storms continue to lurk just over the horizon. But the God I believe in BIGGER and more POWERFUL than any storm any of us can brew up!
“Take my hand,” God says,” and remember there are no limitations on how far My Arm will reach out and pull you back into My Heart!”
“May the Lord of peace himself give you his peace no matter what happens. The Lord be with you all.”**
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations are taken from The Living Bible, Copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.”
**2 Thessalonians 3:16, The Living Bible