Have you ever experienced a sorrow so devastating that you felt you were enveloped by heavy, thick, dark clouds? A dreadful darkness that makes God's perfect love seem gone forever, with His grace to bear all things cast into a sea of despair and hopelessness? Life includes these seasons.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything.
We have sunshine and rain, but in it all we must trust in the justice of God and in His perfect plan for our lives.
Darkness was on the face of the deep when God created our world.
When Jesus died the world was dark.
Hebrews 6:19 says that we have hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
God is grounded and will never drift from His perfect plan for your life.
He is unchangeable and all powerful.
When the disciples were at sea and the storm came over the ship while Jesus slept, they thought that the storm signified that Jesus had forgotten about them and that He didn't care about them, but that was not true.
God does not sleep and He never forgets us.
God is always telling us that He is working, even in our darkness.
Even when it seems there is no hope left.
This is the time to trust.
Not when things are going well.
These are the times the Devil will come and whisper to you that God has forgotten you, that He doesn't care.
Your heart wants to cry like Gideon, "If the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened to us?" (Judges 6:13) Difficult times are designed to bring us closer to God, but in a world where we are told that life should be what we want it to be, we struggle with trust and faith and belief.
We must remember that we are not of this world.
Its principles and systems will never sustain our soul or spirits -- only our Creator will.
God's Word will still the stormy seas of your life.
As Jesus spoke to the storm and sea to comfort His disciples, He will speak to your storm if you will let Him.
Stay in His Word and listen for He can calm your heart and soul no matter what the seas of life look like around you.
There is Word enough to dispel your fears and sorrow if you will continue to stand in it.
"With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.
" A.
W.
Tozer