The Night of Tornadoes

Last night, things got wild here in the NW part of NJ and the NE portion of PA.  This series of severe storms and tornadoes had already wreaked havoc in Ohio and W. PA and then moved east for us to enjoy also.  If you have read what I have written in the past, you will know that I get terrified--or at the very least, extremely anxious--in the face of severe weather. Partly it is a visceral fear when the thunder booms so loud the house shakes and your insides shake right along with it.  And partly, it is a practical fear because if the electricity goes out in a heavy rain, our sump pump won't work, and the basement will flood...and that is just a nightmare....because  I cannot get downstairs to clean it out and we will, instead, have to pay for someone to come in and do it. (this happened to us in Hurricane Sandy).

Someone recently posted this clipping on Facebook a while back and it just grabbed me by the heart and it has radically changed my approach to storms---whether weather storms or life storms.  Last night as my dad's mobile home rocked in the thunder, I read this passage and I began to pray...while dad went outside to pull out the generator, I lifted my hands and I worshiped.  And my fear was quelled.

I went to bed in the middle of the storm and there was a verse niggling at my mind...all I could remember of it was "...that which concerns me."  I struggled with the search feature in my eBible and had trouble locating it...but finally was able to.  Here it is:

Psalm 138:8 NKJV — The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

God not only is aware of what concerns me....he is working to PERFECT that stuff.  To make it work in my life in a manner that is most beneficial to me.  And for the people in my life who are my concern, he is at work to bring them, too, to a place of relationship with Jesus and to a refining of their characters  where God can make them all that he intends for them to be.  And in times of danger when all that seems to be at risk, he will not forsake the work of his hands....He will not stop working in my life, in their lives...And not only that but he is working with a heart of mercy toward us. He knows our limitations and will not crush us under the weight of his will.

I went to sleep last night listening to the last strains of the tympani in the symphony God was conducting outside my windows.  That deep rumble that was rolling away in to the next stop in its journey. And I thought of one more verse :

 In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
    for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Ps 4:8 ESV

The paragraph I quoted earlier talks about giving radical thanks and gratitude toward God even when we are in the thick of a storm.   And it is because the LORD is our safety and if we are in him then there is not one thing to fear.  Even if he doesn't rescue us from every ill effect, he is more than sufficient and more then willing to get us through whatever it is we must get through.

The storms are  not over.  There are storms predicted for every  day this week. There will always be storms in this life to get through.  And once we learn to rest on HIS power, which is greater than any tornado, then these things do not have the power to disturb our peace.  Instead we can welcome the "birth pangs" of the violent weather catastrophes we are seeing more and more of---and we can know with complete calm and yes, even joy, that the  "summation of all things, is at hand."  And that means that the hour when Jesus finally returns and sets up his Kingdom is coming closer and closer --and that is the best thing possible.  And if you don't think so---then I have a Savior you need to meet!