Built for a Storm

Built for the Storm

The Storms Didn’t Stop

You’re forgiven. You’re a new creation. You’ve got a new name. God calls you His.

And the rent is still due.

The cravings still come knocking, sometimes harder than before. Your kid still doesn’t call back. Your spouse is still cold across the dinner table. The car needs brakes you can’t afford. Your boss is still a jerk. Tuesday at 2 a.m. the old temptation shows up, and somewhere in the back of your head a voice asks the question that has stopped more believers in their tracks than almost any other:

If God is really for me, why is it still this hard?

Maybe somebody told you that when you got right with Jesus, things would get easier. Calmer. Smoother. That a real Christian doesn’t go through what you’re going through. So now, when the storms keep rolling in, you’re not just dealing with the storms. You’re dealing with the suspicion that maybe none of this is real, or that you must be doing it wrong.

This paper is about that. Because the Bible has a lot to say about storms, and it’s almost the opposite of what you’ve probably been told.

Get your coffee. Sit down. Let’s talk about why a forgiven, new-named son or daughter of God still gets hit, and what we’re supposed to do when it happens.

Jesus Told Us the Storms Would Come

Jesus did not promise His followers a calm life. Read this carefully. He said the opposite, and He said it on purpose.

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

— John 16:33 (NLT)

Read that one slowly. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. Not maybe. Not sometimes. Not just for the people who don’t have enough faith. You will. This is Jesus talking to His own people on the night before He died for them. The last word He gives them before everything falls apart is not cheer up, it’s going to be smooth. It’s brace yourself, but I’m bigger than what’s coming.

If your life has been hard, that is not proof you’re failing. According to Jesus, that’s proof you’re living on planet Earth.

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.”

— 1 Peter 4:12 (NLT)

Don’t be surprised. Peter wrote that to people who were getting burned at stakes and thrown to lions. He’s not surprised, and he doesn’t want them surprised either. The storm is not a sign that something is wrong with your walk. It’s part of the walk.

The Storm Is Not Punishment

Here’s where the voice gets crafty. When a storm hits, that old accuser from week two shows up and whispers: See? God is punishing you. He’s still mad. This is what you get.

That voice is lying again. Let’s nail this down.

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

— Romans 8:1 (NLT)

We have quoted this verse every week. Here’s why again: when the storm comes, that’s the verse the voice will work hardest to make you forget. No condemnation. That means the storm is not God paying you back. Jesus already absorbed everything you had coming on the cross. If the bills are due and the kid is gone and the temptation is screaming, that is not God’s verdict on you. That is just life on this broken planet, the same life everyone else is living, and you are walking through it as His child, not His convict.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

— Romans 8:28 (NLT)

Notice what that verse does and does not say. It does not say everything that happens to you is good. Some of it is bad. Some of it is genuinely evil. The verse says God causes everything — including the bad — to work together for good in the lives of His people. Even the storms. Especially the storms.

You don’t have to pretend the storm is good. You don’t have to put on a fake smile and say praise the Lord when you just got laid off. You can be honest about how bad it is. And you can also trust that the God who knows how to turn a cross into a resurrection knows how to turn this into something too.

What the Storm Is Actually For

Stay with me on this. The Bible says the storms in your life have a purpose, and once you see it, the storms hit different.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

— James 1:2-4 (NLT)

James is not telling you to fake feelings. He’s telling you a fact. The storms are how endurance gets built into you. You don’t get to be steady in your soul by sitting on a couch your whole life. You get to be steady by standing up in the wind enough times that the wind stops moving you.

Think about a tree on the side of a mountain. The trees that grow up in greenhouses with no wind look pretty, but the first storm knocks them flat. The trees that grew up exposed to the wind have roots three times deeper than the trees in the valley. The storms didn’t break them. The storms built them.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”

— Romans 5:3-4 (NLT)

Read that chain. Problems and trials → endurance → strength of character → confident hope. The man who never went through anything has a soft handshake faith. The woman who walked through fire and is still standing has a faith that other people can lean on. God is not trying to make you comfortable. He is trying to make you strong. Comfortable and strong are not the same thing.

How Jesus Stood in His Own Storms

Want to know what to do when the wind picks up? Watch what Jesus did.

Right before the cross — the worst storm a human being has ever walked into — Jesus went to a garden called Gethsemane. He was so distressed He was sweating blood (Luke 22:44). And He prayed something we should memorize and use:

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

— Luke 22:42 (NLT)

Notice three things about that prayer.

First, Jesus was honest about how bad it was. He did not pretend He was okay. He said please take this away from me. It’s not weak faith to tell God a storm is hard. It’s honest faith.

Second, He brought the storm to His Father. Not to a bottle. Not to a phone. Not to the person He used to call when He was hurting. To His Father. That’s where you take the storm too. You have a Father now. He’s not too busy.

Third, He surrendered the outcome. Not my will, but yours. That’s not giving up. That’s the deepest kind of trust there is. Lord, I’d love for You to take this away. And if You don’t, I trust You know what You’re doing. That sentence, prayed honestly, will hold you up in storms nothing else can hold you up in.

Stand. Don’t Quit. Don’t Quit.

The Bible has a word it uses over and over for what we’re supposed to do in the storm. It’s not win. It’s not escape. It’s not figure out why.

It’s stand.

“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”

— Ephesians 6:13 (NLT)

That’s it. Stand. After the wind has blown and the rain has fallen, you are still on your feet. Still in the family. Still believing. Still showing up Wednesday morning. That is the win. You don’t have to defeat the storm. You just have to outlast it. And you outlast it by holding on to a Father who is holding on to you.

“And let us not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

— Galatians 6:9 (NLT)

The verse doesn’t say if you do everything right. It says if we don’t give up. Showing up is half the battle. Not perfect. Not strong. Not figured out. Just showing up. Tomorrow. And the next day. And next Wednesday.

The cravings will come. Show up anyway. The bills will come. Show up anyway. The voice will whisper what’s the point. Show up anyway. The harvest is coming. The Bible says so.

You are not built to escape the storm. You are built to stand in it.

TAKE IT WITH YOU

One thought.  The storm is not God’s verdict on you. It’s the road every one of His children walks. You’re not failing. You’re walking.

One question.  What is the storm hitting you the hardest right now? Now read Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane again. Can you pray that same prayer about your storm?

One step.  This week, when the storm hits, do three things in this order. Be honest with God about how hard it is. Bring it to Him before you bring it to anyone or anything else. Then say out loud: Not my will, but Yours. I’m not quitting.

NEXT WEDNESDAY

The Power of One Other Person.  You weren’t built to do this alone. Not the storms, not the recovery, not the walk with Jesus. Next week we’ll talk about why the Bible refuses to let you be a one-man Christian — and why one other person who knows the real you is worth more than a thousand church friends who only know your Sunday face. Bring a friend. Bring your coffee. We’ll be here.

All Scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT).