No small storm is like minor surgery. If it is my storm or my surgery it ain’t minor.
I was reading a story earlier today with no intent really but just to read for a moment. And a story I had read many times before a specific passage came alive to me.
Here’s the Readers Digest Version.
A ship many centuries ago was caught up in a storm that had lasted for several days and the ship and it’s crew and passengers were in danger. Allow me to include a passage from the classic piece of literature and see if you can guess from where the passage is taken.
“And since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.”
What captured my attention was the phrase, “all hope of our being saved was gradually abandoned.” Hope was lost but not all at once, nor was given up as the result of one specific incident. Hope in this case was gradually abandoned which means that because of the storm around them, a decision was made to abandon hope.
As I am writing this entry, a friend of mine is going through a financial storm. And as in the story I read earlier today, but from a previous passage, everything is being thrown overboard to try and save the ship and it’s passengers. Tomorrow I will share this story with him and reassure him that God will see him through this storm and no one will be lost. Might have to throw some stuff overboard but all those going through the storm with him will be saved.
Storms pop up often in life. Some small, or in some cases, no small storm. I want to encourage you to not gradually abandon hope when storms come into your life. All you can cling to in a storm, is your Hope in God.
A few years ago, a man I knew was approaching the end of his life. I wrote a member of the family hoping to encourage them and included the following verse. It was so comforting for me personally that I added it to a list of life verses for my own experiences.
‘He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet; So He guided them to their desired haven.” Psalm 107:29-30.
If you do not give up Hope, He will bring you to where He intended you to be all along, safe and sound.
JHH
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