Revolutionary Leaders

Storms Come Without Warning BUT God Is Still Amazing

Matthew 8:23-27
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

Nobody expected the Columbine High School Massacre in April of 1999. Nobody expected 9/11 in 2001. Nobody could have predicted the murder of 32 people @ Virginia Tech, two weeks ago.

In the same respect, I''m sure that you didn’t expect your best friend could hurt you like that. You didn’t see it coming when you marriage began to fall apart. You never could have imagined that you would be diagnosed with cancer. You never dreamed that someone close to you would destroy your business. Who would have thought the test results would come back as cardio myopathy?

Storms come without warning and even without provocation. Was it the disciples fault that the storm came? Could they have predicted it or prevented it? I doubt it. However, it’s in the storm that we see how amazing God really is!

Victor Frankl was a young and gifted psychiatrist when he was deported to a Nazi consentration camp with his father, mother and wife of only one year. Within the first year his father died. Then a year later, both his mother and his wife also died. Even in the midst of his storm, he served as a medical practitioner and counselor to other victoms of the holocaust.

After being liberated in 1945 he wrote a best selling book entitled "Man's Search for Meaning", which described his experiences in those death camps. Although he suffered great loss and witnessed gruesome tragedies day-in and day-out, he wrote these powerful words. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstances” (pg86).

God can use you to minister his grace in the midst of your storm.

In Acts 16 we see Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten, and thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. They could have chosen to curse their captors, blame God and denounce their faith. They could have chosen to be depressed or bitter. But instead they chose to worship God and God did the amazing!

Acts 16:25-30
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

The principle we see here is that your outlook determines you outcome. You can choose to complain and focus on your problem, or you can choose to worship and let God do something amazing through you.

Storms come without warning but God is still amazing! Your storm, your problem, could be the very thing that God will use to change history, to launch a revival, to increase your faith, to encourage someone else’s life, to show Himself to you as Amazing.