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"To worship God in truth is to recognize Him for being who He is, and to recognize ourselves for what we are." Brother Lawrence AFTERMATH: This devotion is for everyone…the sinner and the saint. There is one thing in life that everyone has in common. Storms - those trials that came into your life and changed the landscaping of your heart and soul, for good or for bad depending on how you responded in the storm. Storms are a natural part of life, like nature’s storms are a part of the course of nature. The sunrises and sets, tides come in and out, and tornados, earthquakes, mudslides, hurricanes and avalanches, are inevitable. Today New Orleans remains shocking to look at but there are now few headlines, yet the people are still trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. What has been so toxic in your life that it has caused you to become a shadow of the person you should be? No matter how different the trials and storms are, every one of them has one thing in common: an aftermath – when you are looking around at what is left standing and wondering what your next step is. Christian or not, you will have endured storms of the soul, rejection, hurt, misunderstanding. Someone you loved left you; someone you were married to cheated on you or hurt you in some other deep, soul way. Someone you loved died too young. You failed at something you worked hard for and you don’t know what went wrong. It’s the moments after the ‘eye’ of the storm has passed and you are looking at your life, to see what can ever be the same again. You are not alone - you may feel alone, but Jesus is there! When the disciples went out onto the Sea of Galilee and faced the storm that threatened to overturn their boat and drown them, they had numerous emotions running through their minds. Even for them, Jesus was the answer and you have to look at your aftermath with eyes that only Jesus can give you. That’s why it is so important that you do not separate yourself from Him in any way. He is the only one who can guide you through the precarious waters and onto dry land again. Here is one mans story: When Katrina came through my state I lost everything; my house; my wife; my job; and my desire to live. It was easy to curse this God I did not know and I tried to kill myself. I ended up near a bar in the city I had evacuated to. A man walking to his car must have thought something about me was off. He came to me and asked only if he could pray for me. It’s funny how five little words can make a grown man cry like a baby. It was as if all that was bottled inside me came to the surface in a flicker of a second and I collapsed into the arms of a stranger. I cried like that for an hour, he took off his t-shirt and offered it to me to wipe my eyes and clean my face afterwards. I told him everything; to think that I would pour out my heart to someone I don’t know. The Christian man listened, prayed, and told me about what Jesus did for me on the cross. You would think he would tell me that God would make my life better. He told me that I could not live through the pain of the days ahead and make right choices without the Lord. I realized that I was empty and on a road to destruction, like I was going to destroy anything that the storm hadn’t destroyed. I prayed that day and Jesus has been with me ever since. Things are still chaos around me but inside of me there is the source of life. I am going to this mans church. We study the Bible, and we have coffee a couple of times a week to talk about how good God really is. Nothing about coming to the Lord can change the past, but He can help me with my present and future. God sent a man to pull me in at the right time. If there is anything that I can add, it is simply that Jesus is not a Santa Claus. We don’t go to God with a list of what we want Him to make happen and wait for them to happen. We don’t get mad at God when He doesn’t make our list happen and punish Him by leaving His presence. Your storm is inevitable. How you face your aftermath is a choice. There are two lessons: First, you have to cling to Jesus with all of your might. You can’t let go when things look bad, or when what you ask for is not granted at that moment. He is and a good God, not an ogre in Heaven looking to make your life bad. He is able to single out what you need and bring you back to the path of life. Secondly, healing takes time. God is making changes perhaps so small that you aren’t seeing them. Take your eyes off the problems and look only into the face of God. In time, you will look around and see He reshaped your life. BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW. Written by Rev Michelle Molina |
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