The Storm You Can't See

 

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock.  O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.  Show us your mighty power.  Come to rescue us!  Turn us again to yourself, O God.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.
 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers? You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful.  You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations.  Our enemies treat us as a joke.  Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.
You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine; you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.  You cleared the ground for us, and we took root and filled the land.  Our shade covered the mountains; our branches covered the mighty cedars.  We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea; our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.  But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?  The wild boar from the forest devours it, and the wild animals feed on it.  Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies.  Look down from heaven and see our plight.  Take care of this grapevine that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.  For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.  May they perish at the sight of your frown.  Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.  Then we will never abandon you again.  Revive us so we can call on your name once more.  Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.  Psalm 80:1-19

Three times in these 19 verses the Psalmist appeals to the mercy of God with the truth statement that, only then will we be saved.  This is not just an appeal, it is a faith statement that is sorrowfully missing in our day.  While many in America fear what we can see, buildings collapsing from terrorists crashing planes into skyscrapers, national or personal bankruptcy, or death by COVID-19 plague, the more fearful reality for 21^st century (or any day) people is the unseen Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

The Psalmist nailed it over and over….ONLY then will we be saved.  He was talking about the kind of revival that does not include waving American flags and congratulating ourselves on being the biggest, best, baddest or whatever.  When it comes to our infrastructure, superstructure and just plain existence as a nation, we hang like a spider over an open flame (to quote Jonathan Edwards).  And it’s only by a single strand of faith that we stand, connected to God.  What we’ve consistently done in America is stretch that strand by overloading our pockets and ignoring the God Who gave us our freedom and blessing.

Ancient Israel and modern-day America have parallels that are too similar to ignore.  Ancient Israel’s Godly beginnings (or “religious” if you prefer socio-policitical correctness, more accurately, atheism) saw a ragtag movement of former slaves conquer the land of Palestine, filled with fierce rivals.  18^th Century colonies in the New World clobbered the British Empire and began a new experiment in liberty.  Both Israel and America grew prosperous and mighty.  Both (eventually) turned their collective backs on God.

And, now we’re up to date.  That is us.  We are a secular nation; God is being phased-out as surely as our dependence on vaccinations, political machinations, and economic manipulations have become the new drug of choice to assuage our sense of worry.

And, like ancient Israel, America is going to find out the reputation we celebrate as a decent, moral, peacemaking people won’t mean a thing when God shakes the rug out from underneath our surprised feet.

For You Today

YOU, singlehandedly, cannot turn America back to God, but you can be PART of what does accomplish that.  Start praying with the Psalmist:

Show us your mighty power.  Come to rescue us!  Turn us again to yourself, O God.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Perfect Storm

[i]

Thursday, May 18, 2017

The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard.  The following day they even took some of the ship’s gear and threw it overboard.  The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.  

Acts 27:18-20^(NLT)

My mind has been occupied by storms lately; then this passage in Acts shows up on my reading schedule!  I guess there’s no escaping it, is there?

Paul was on a prison ship bound for Rome, where he would stand trial and eventually be executed for his faith in Christ.  The ship runs into the perfect storm and the crew does everything they can to survive, but despite throwing the cargo and even the ship’s gear overboard, a 14-day raging monster storm destroys all hope of ever seeing the light of another day; all hope was gone!

Of course Paul (and everyone else on board) lived to tell this story.  And the storm and its story are simply a footnote to Paul and Luke’s travel journal.  What’s more important is that Paul had been assured by God that all the humans would survive, but the ship and its contents wouldn’t.  Then God made sure that plan happened.

So…surviving the storm is not at all the central reason to pray and ask God to save you from the pain of injury or death; it’s a more important lesson we learn when we pay attention to what comes after a storm, than the storm itself.

Of all the lessons I’ve learned in life, starting as a 6 year old needing to be humble enough to stand still while Mom zipped up the jacket I could never quite manage …to fumbling the ball with a sermon or missing an appointment because I was too lazy to write it down…I’ve learned that the storm isn’t the teacher…the valued lessons are because of what God is doing with the storm, and its results, and what He wants to teach me about living by faith. 

These lessons are by God’s design for my growth as a disciple, but I’ll never truly understand them if I don’t let go of my sinful pride and stubbornness.  That stubborn pride is what makes me second-guess God’s allowing me to fall into some of the storms with people and the natural elements…as well as the dumb things I’ve done while not paying attention or just simply stumbling my way through life without prayer.

As I mentioned at the outset in this devotion, my mind has been filled with storms lately.  I’ve been reading Talbot Davis’ The Storm Before the Calm.  In his chapter on this text[ii] he writes over and again, the longer the storm, the lighter you travel.  I take that to mean, when God’s trying to get your attention with a storm, you need to toss whatever it takes over the ship’s rail to lighten the load so you can respond to the call.  But we don’t…do we?  Rather we sail through the raging darkness, blind, no clue where the stars are to help us navigate.  As Rev. Davis writes:  maybe you have convinced yourself that, sun and moon or not, you can find your way alone.  That attitude becomes your cargo, and it weighs you down.  Toss that mindset overboard and get serious about the guidance you need.

For You Today

If the storms of life are rocking your boat, maybe you just won’t hear what God’s been trying to say until you throw some of that excess baggage overboard.  That’s what would make a storm a Perfect storm!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

 ^I Title image:  Ivan Aivazovsky [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Talbot Davis, The Storm Before the Calm; Making Sense of Life’s Troubles, (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2015), p.84