CAUGHT IN THE STORM
‘But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea.’
Jonah 1:4
In Mark chapter 4 we see Christ stilling the storm that had terrified the apostles. Here we find Him sending a great wind into the sea. It is strange to see the Lord on the one hand stilling a fierce storm and on the other sending one. But as the hymn writer has noted, the wind and waves obey Him.
The Lord never sends a storm without a very good reason. In Jonah’s case it was because he was going in the direction opposite to where the Lord had sent him. He had to learn that he could not deliberately disobey God with impunity. To teach him that lesson, the Lord sent out such a storm into the Mediterranean Sea that no effort made by the most experienced sailors could avail in the unequal struggle between the waves and the helpless vessel being tossed about as a plaything.
Perhaps you are passing through stormy waters at this period of your life. You are not in the midst of the Mediterranean, but there is such a storm raging in your heart that you feel you cannot go on any longer. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, once passed through a fierce conflict. He knew the Lord wanted him to go to the interior of China, but he was afraid to lead workers there lest the venture should fail utterly. His inner conflict was so intense that he thought he was going to lose his reason. At last Taylor was brought to a full surrender to God, and the subsequent work led to the salvation of multitudes of Chinese people.
Has the storm in your life been caused by your refusal to surrender to the Lord and obey His voice? “Go through with God.”
Rev. Gordon Ferguson,
Kilkeel, N.I.
There is no art that can elude or baffle the messengers
of Him who is the Judge of the quick and the dead.
HUGH MARTIN
(From: Eagles’ Wings Daily Devotional
Edited by: Alan Cairns)
