When it Rains, it Pours

     It's pouring. Elongated strips of lightening light up the sky like the sun. Rolls of thunder make the foundations of your house tremble. Wind sounds like a freight train. It's pitch-black (between the bolts of lightening) and limbs are flying off of trees constantly. You are scared out of your mind, helpless, in a state of panic. What do you do? Do you trust God through the storm?
     The scene above is something that every single one of us will encounter over and over and over again. It's the storms of life, the times where confusion is clouding your vision, the times where fear makes you freeze in your steps. This is the time where the majority of new believers abandon God, as well as a large percent of veteran believers. So what do you do? Are you going to trust God through it? Or are you going to take the easy way out and bail?
    A lot of people don't see that the easy way out is giving up. They think the easy way out is blindly trusting God. It's easy to cling to your beliefs, even if you can't exactly explain why you are doing so. It's easy to not give up on something because, after all, the only reason you still are a believer is becuase thats the only way you have been identifying yourself. Its easy because being a Chrsitian has become your identity and you're not going to give up on it. Right? Actually, wrong.
     It's not easy. It's really, really, really hard. When things are going wrong in your life and you're in the storm, it's easier to let your breath quicken and abandon ship. It's hard to take one deep breath and trust that no matter how long it takes, no matter how rough the storm is, you will trust that God will deliver you. It's a fight to not question why God is putting you through things. Its really really easy to say "I'm not doing this anymore," and choose to believe that God doesn't guide and direct your paths. Turning your back is so easy.
     What's the hardest part of it? God doesn't give you any guarantees. He doesn't tell you when the storm will end, if it ever does, and he doesn't make it any less rough because you're a believer. All God gives us is the promise that it will end (weather in this life or in death, we don't know), and that He is enough. Even if your entire life is falling apart, God is enough. You could have absolutely nothing, but God is still enough. Are you going to believe that? Are you going to be able to swim in the most choppy of oceans, but trust that God will keep your head above the water? I'm telling you now, it's HARD. 
      But its not in vain, that I promise you. Your view on the storm is exactly that... your view. You want to be happy and positive? Do it. You want to be sad and moan? You can do that too. It all depends on what you want to put your values in. When you put them in God and the furthering of his kingdom, you're choosing to be happy. If you want to measure your life through the eyes of this world, you're choosing a long and hard path of despair. I encourage you all to take the hard path- the happy one. Put your faith in God. He IS faithful. He will pull through if you are keeping your eyes on him.
John 16:33 "I have said these things to you, that in me you may find peace. In this world you will face tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

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