After The Storm

As I was driving my daughter to school this morning, I couldn’t help but notice the rich colors in the autumn trees. Behind the trees there was the deep blue sky after the rain storm we had and some sun shining through. It made me think of how do we react to God after the storm?

Many of us pray more fervently to God in our troubled times. We often ask to be added to prayer lists and tell our family and friends to please pray for us for the things we are suffering through. When we come to God in deep prayer, we humble ourselves to God. In Romans 5 we are told that tribulations produces patience, patience produces experience and experience produces hope. We have faith and hope in God that He will see us through. Trouble causes us to give our problems to God and have faith that through His will, everything will work itself out. Tribulations strengthen our relationship to God, and helps us grow as Christians. How people react after the storm has passed is important.

There are some Christians who are always busy. They read the Bible maybe one day a week along with church on Sunday, and maybe even say a few prayers through the week but they are not putting God first. They are so busy with their family and running the kids to soccer practice, getting dinner on the table and keeping God from being first in their lives. God allows trouble to enter their life and now they wonder why God is allowing these things to happen. They earnestly pray for God to help them, they stop and take the time to find scriptures that will give them guidance for their problems, so now they are putting God first. Then when God has seen them through, they thank Him and some go back to their busy lifestyle, until trouble comes up again. Others understand what God was trying to tell them and take more time for God knowing that their relationship to God is more important than that busy lifestyle. Some hear Gods voice and understand that God is calling. God allows tribulations to happen, it’s Gods way of letting you know there is a problem in your relationship to Him. Is human suffering punishment and always deserved? No, but we can learn from it.
We must always remember to put God first and pay attention when He is trying to tell us something. God takes time to hear our prayers and we must hear Him when he answers, even if the answer is different than what we were hoping for.

(Deu 8:2-5) And you shall remember all the way which Jehovah your God led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3) And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and then He fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of Jehovah man shall live. 4) Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell, these forty years. 5) And you have known with your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so Jehovah your God chastens you.