One day, I was going for a walk, and before I headed out, I checked the weather to see what the temperature was going to be. It was nice, going up to about 15 degrees. However, it said that at 11am, it was going to rain for an hour and stop at 12pm, so I decided to put on a rain jacket. As I was walking, I noticed the clouds getting darker, which signaled that it was going to rain soon. I immediately started to think about alternative routes on how to dodge the clouds. Do you know how hard it is to dodge a rain cloud?
As I was thinking of which route to take, I realized that I was wearing a rain jacket. Then it hit me. Why did I wear a rain jacket if I didn’t expect it to rain? What is the point of wearing a rain jacket if I’m planning to dodge the rain the whole time? Perhaps I was wearing the rain jacket for more of a “just in case” it rains.
Then I realized that in trying to find alternative routes to avoid the rain storm, I would have made my walk longer than it needed to be. Perhaps, I would have even been walking in a direction that I was not necessarily intended to go.
So at that moment, I decided to stick to the intended route I was planning to walk. I know what you are wondering, “did it rain?” The answer is YES! It rained and it rained hard.
The forecast said light rain, but in my opinion, it felt like heavy rain. Maybe it’s because I don’t like rain, period. My wife, on the other hand, loves rain, which is why I brought a rain jacket, because I know that someday, I’m going to have to walk in the rain out of love for my wife.
When I got home and took off my jacket, I realized that my upper body was completely dry. Unfortunately, I was not wearing waterproof pants, shoes or socks, so they were all soaked, but the jacket that was intended to keep me dry actually kept me dry.
Here are some things I felt the Lord highlight from my experience:
God gave us the Holy Spirit through His son Jesus so that we can go through the storms of life
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be with you.”
John 14:16-17 (NIV)
- Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have a helper who lives in us and will help us get through every storm.
- Just like the rain jacket, we have the Holy Spirit not with the notion that it might rain on us but with the belief that when it does rain Jesus will protect us through the storm.
Here’s a Secret: Storms eventually have to end.
- I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I do know that a storm has a beginning and an end, which means that it won’t last forever. From the time I left from my walk till the time I came back home, the rain started and stopped. It might have felt like forever, but eventually, as I got closer and closer to my home, the rain got lighter and lighter. I say this to give us hope in the midst of a storm so that we won’t give up.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9 ESV
Sometimes the storms of life may cause you to search for alternative routes/solutions that God did not intend for you to take
- Recently, I’ve been reading Genesis and the story of Abraham and Sarah. God had promised them many descendants and when years had gone by Sarah decided to find an alternative solution to God’s promise as she was not able to have children as of yet (Genesis 16:1-3 (NLT)).
- Don’t get me wrong, God still blessed them and Hagar and Ishmael in spite of their decisions but I wonder how close they were to seeing God’s promise fulfilled. I wonder what would have happened if they persevered for a little while longer.
Storms are meant to teach us more about who God is rather than what we can do.
- When the world teaches us about perseverance, the emphasis is on our abilities through the process of enduring difficult situations and circumstances. What I have found is that when we go through a storm with a focus on Jesus and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I am in awe of who God is and what He can do. My confidence in persevering doesn’t come from my abilities, but from who God is and what I’ve seen him do in my life. So when we enter into the season of patient endurance, it requires an intentional focus on Jesus rather than what we can do.
When we avoid the storms of life, we don’t get to experience the full extent of the power of the Holy Spirit
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
- Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness. In other words, when we are weak we can see the fullness of Christ’s power in us through the Holy Spirit. When we are strong, capable, competent, and feel like it is something we can accomplish/get through on our own, there is no need for Christ’s power because we have our own. The Holy Spirit’s power is not being utilized because we have rendered it unnecessary.
- Wearing a rain jacket when the weather is sunny and clear does not demonstrate the potential benefit and effectiveness of the rain jacket. The rain jacket simply becomes like every other jacket, because what it was designed to do is not being utilized. If I kept dodging the rain every time there was a rain cloud, I would never experience the benefits and effectiveness of the rain jacket I was wearing.
- If every time a problem, a trial, a difficulty of sorts came to you and you avoided it or tried your best to get around it, you would not get to experience the benefits and effectiveness of Christ in you through the Holy Spirit.
As you continue on this journey of Patient Endurance, I pray that you would turn to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to help you THROUGH whatever you are going through. I pray Proverbs 3:5-6 over you, that you would “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you wherever you go.
In Jesus’ mighty name we pray, Amen!