Finding God in the Storm of Life

He said not “you shall not be tempted, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be distressed, but you
shall not be overcome”. There is no temptation, such that is uncommon to man. This suggests that all
temptations are common, however, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted more than you
can bear. What this implies is that you and I are too loaded to fail. Nevertheless, with every temptation,
he has made a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. This means that God’s intervention in our
situations, does not necessarily suggest an end to the problem (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Recall how God instructed the children of Israel, who were taken captive into Babylon that they should
build houses, give their children for marriage, plant vineyards and pray for the peace of Babylon, for He
will not visit them for a release until after 70 years. However, He makes it abundantly clear to them that
He has a wonderful thought for their lives and these are the thoughts of peace and not of evil to give
them a future and an expected end. In the wisdom of Robert H. Shuller, he makes this important point
about problems that, “a problem free life is an illusion, a mirage in the desert, a dangerously perspective
deception, which can mislead, blind and distract. To pursue a problem free life, is to run after an elusive
fantasy. It is a waste of physical and mental energies. Every living human person has problems and that
fact is to be accepted. He goes further to say that “Every problem has a limited life span. Every mountain
has a peak. Every valley has its low point. Life has its ups and downs, peaks and its valleys. No one is up
overtime nor are they down overtime. Problems do end, they do go away. They are all resolved
overtime”.
It is important to note that our times are in the hands of God but His times are not in our hands. God is
not just a promise maker or keeper, beyond these, He is a covenant keeper. For us to align with His
schedules, all we need to do is to have respect to the covenant, “have respect to the covenant for the
dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty” (Psalm 74:20). God has promised to be with
you, when you pass through the waters, and through the rivers so that they will not overflow you, and
when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flame kindle upon you (Isaiah 43:2).
Having realized this promise, it is important to note that God’s presence does not take away the feelings
such as the coldness of the water, and the heat of the fire. What His presence does is to insulate you
and this happens only when you allow God, Himself, to pass through you.
There is a common saying that when people who went through a university and did nothing other than
studying, they are believed to have passed through the university but not allowing the university itself
pass through them. People who fall into this category, end up becoming half-baked educationally and fit
in also for description as being bookish. This is because the best book is not that which you read, but the
one that reads you. You cannot pass through the waters and escape its temperature and the same
applies with walking through the fire. Problems, more often than not, are designed to make and not mar
us, but what becomes our reality is determined by how we react to them.
All fate is believed to be an experiment and no one gets the result of an experiment without making the
experiment. According to Joseph Anderson, our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains,
losses and disappointments, but let us have patience and we shall soon see them in their proper figures.
Most often than not, we are depressed, frustrated, and lose hope in our trying times, simply because we
cannot see God in our situations. No wonder why Jacob admitted that his reality, when he said “the Lord
is here and I knew it not”. The seeing eye and the hearing ear, God made both of them to serve different
purposes, however, in Christian walk, we can only see clearly when the veil in our faces are removed

and as far as we can see, is what determines what becomes our portion (2 Corinthians 3:18, Genesis
13:14). We, most of the times, allow our problems to becloud our vision, hindering us from seeing God,
who has promised not to forsake us nor leave us. God’s presence in our situation will remain
inconsequential until we are able to see Him and see Him well. God asked Jeremiah what he saw, and he
replied God saying, “I saw the rod of an almond tree”, and God said to him “you have seen well, and
therefore will I hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:11).
Our churches are great places of fellowship, but in reality, what we make out of them will not impact
our lives positively until we put them into practice, by we becoming witnesses ourselves of those things
that we are being taught. In the first place, the purpose why we were formed is for the declaration of
God’s praise and this calls for us being God’s witnesses on the earth (Isaiah 43:21). However, if we are to
be made into wine, we cannot escape being crushed, for you cannot drink grapes. The most effective
speech is not a sermon but a witness. To this end, where you don’t have an advice to give, you are
expected to tell your story. It was not after I lost my vision completely, both of my eye sight in 2014, that
I realized that all things work for the good of them that love God and who are called according to His
purpose. God has a defined purpose for your life and if that purpose must be realized, it can only
happen on God’s terms and not your own, and this may be costly, painful, and disappointing. Faith is an
act, and until we act what we believe, faith cannot be born. Faith is not a believe without proofs, but
trust without reservation. So we would not know if we have faith or not, if we do not go through trails,
for the best way out is true and there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end, thereof, are the
ways of destruction (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25). Seeming right does not make it right, therefore, the way of
life has to be shown (Psalm 16:11).
On a final note, no matter what you are going through, that makes people think you are finished, you
cannot be finished when you have faith with a hanging on power. There is one ingredient that mountain
moving faith, miracle generating faith, earth shaking faith, problem solving faith, and situation changing
faith must have and that ingredient is holding power. This kind of faith makes great people, who are
ordinary people but with extraordinary amount of determination. In the event of turbulence that are
unexpected and above and beyond your wildest imagination, take cognizance that a wise man has said
that there is no mountain anywhere, for any man’s mountain is his ignorance. Elijah, while in a cave,
after he fled from Jezebel, was so troubled and desirous of hearing from God, then came a wild fire, an
earthquake, thinking in them was God, but was disappointed when he could not find God in them. He
eventually found God in a still small voice. The truth is that, the earthquake and the wild fire only
represented Elijah’s state of mind, but when he received the grace to calm down, he was said to have
found God in a still small voice.
For us to overcome, we must be ready to descend, decrease and allow God to increase, that is when we
are ready to surrender and allow God to have his way. God is too faithful to fail us, and we need also to
realized that we also are too loaded to fail ourselves, for God daily loads us with benefits (Psalm 68:19).
Furthermore, the scripture says, “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen; I
will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10). Rest assured that where you cannot touch the hands of God,
as long as you can feel His heart, you are in safe hands, for as face answers to face in water, so does
your heart connect with His heart, for with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, but with the
mouth, confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10). God is not only near to you, but lives in you.