Pastor Jeanne Miller
Back in the 1950’s I remember being in a hurricane that passed over my house. At that time, we had wooden shutters on each of our windows and I can remember my father closing them before the storm hit. It made it as dark as midnight inside the house. After a time of wind and rain, it became very still outside. I can remember opening the doors and looking out at the sky and going outside to see if there was any damage. After a short time my father told us to go back inside because the storm would be starting up again. My sisters and I thought it was over but my father knew that it was the eye of the hurricane that was passing over and that shortly the worst of the storm would hit. It was a real adventure that I’ll never forget. Hurricane Isabel brought back those memories.
There is a place in God which is very much like the eye of a hurricane. It is a place of peace and comfort that we can access even while being in the midst of a problem in our life. I like to call it “the secret place of the Most High God” and I love being in it and having access to it whenever I need to be there. Psalm 91 is all about what you can expect if you abide there. God meets your every need in that place and no fear can enter there—it just isn’t allowed because you’re in the presence of the Most High God. It is a place of safety where you can ride out any storm that may be passing over your life. As long as you stay in the secret place you are safe. Too many times however, we leave that place to see what’s happening outside and it’s easy to be engulfed in the storm once again.
Many Christians don’t know about the secret place and try to face the storm on their own. They end up being buffeted by the wind and the waves and the rain. They end up hurting and wondering where God was in everything that happened. Then they decide that maybe it was God who put them there because He is teaching them something. Those who know that our God is Love and wants only to bless us and be there for us know that this is not so. We know that “though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death”, we have nothing to fear because He is there to deliver us. We know that the method He uses to teach us anything is the Bible and not circumstances. It’s not what we find ourselves in but how we handle the problem once we are there that determines its outcome.
In Proverbs 24:10 it reads, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small”. This means that when you find yourself in a storm, if you give up and just get buffeted and drown, you never had what it takes to conquer the situation. However, there is no reason for us to be in that position. We have all we need “that pertains to life and godliness”. It’s been given to us freely so that we don’t have to go into a storm without knowing what the outcome will be. We have a God who is more than enough and who is willing to give us that “more than enough” power which will always see us through. We’re told that we can “do all things through Christ who strengthens us” and we have not been given the spirit of fear, but “of power, of love and a sound mind”. It seems to me we can’t help but win!
The storms of life come and we don’t have total control over when they hit and how they will manifest themselves. We do, however, have control over whether we will be strong in the day of adversity or not. We do have control over whether we walk through them in strength, power and faith. That has always been under our control and will continue to be so until we go home to be with Jesus. We have the two greatest threats to the enemy at our disposal at all times: prayer and the Bible. If we’re praying in accordance with the Word, we know that we win every time. We truly serve a great God who is the ONLY God and the one that everyone will have to reckon with in the end. As long as we truly abide in “the secret place of the most high”, we will always be more than conquerors!
