Storm Theology
We are all well-acquainted with storms in life whether they be the weather kind or the life-debilitating kind, but how many of us have a sound storm theology ready to activate when needed?
We as believers are profoundly blessed and fully equipped by God to handle the storms of life big or small.
God never promised the storms would be easy to navigate even with all the amazing tools He has given us to employ.
Storms shake us up, expose our weaknesses, and stretch and grow our trust in the Lord.
In the famous story of Jesus calming the raging storm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25), we learn some trust-building truths (storm theology) that can help us all grow our dependence upon the Lord.
1. You can always trust the Lord’s providence in the storm. Nothing just happens in God’s world, but everything is under the divine and caring orchestration of the grand Creator and Divine Synergizer Himself. The Lord can take all the various experiences of life and arrange them in such a way that He is glorified by the fulfillment of His divine purposes, and we get blessed by His meticulous orchestration of all the details. Storms give us the opportunity to remember His amazing providence that “causes all things to work together for good ... to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
2. You can always trust the Lord’s Presence during a storm. Jesus went with the disciples and experienced the storm with them. We are continually reminded that our Lord is with us, so we are never truly left to fight and struggle alone (Heb. 13:5;Matt. 28:20, Psalm 46:1).
3. You can always trust the Lord’s peace in the midst of the storm. While the storm was raging on the outside, Jesus was sleeping in the boat. How can Jesus sleep in such a horrific storm? As God, He is the epitome of calm, the controller and orchestrator of the storm, and living in conscious dependence upon His heavenly Father. But what about us? Jesus told His disciples that He has given us His peace “not as the world gives … let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).
4. You can always trust the Lord’s power for the storm. Sometimes the Lord ends the storm, sometimes He lessens the storm, but sometimes He lets the storm continue to rage. In this story, Jesus demonstrated His power to end the storm with the brief and simple words of His mouth, and when He spoke to the winds and the waves, they became “perfectly calm” (Mark 4:39). God demonstrates His power in our lives not by always ending the storm, but by providing the resources we need for the moment (encouragement from brothers and sisters, reassurance from God’s Word, comfort from the Holy Spirit, access in prayer to His throne of grace, all displays of God’s power).
5. You can always trust the Lord’s plan for the storm. What’s His plan? It’s His plan for everything: ”the just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). We can’t please God “without faith” (Heb. 11:6), so the Christian life is about walking "by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). But what is this faith and trust we need to live by? Faith is a confident reliance upon whatever God says is true. God is a trustworthy God who never breaks a promise nor fails us in any way. His truth is uniquely transformative.
Storm theology is all about growing in our trust in the Lord who can handle any and every storm because He is over, under, in, and around every storm. When the storm eraser is also the storm placer and storm replacer, then we know we’ve truly been blessed with every spiritual blessing.
Pastor Jeff