I love the wisdom we hear in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
I’ve come back to focus on this, as I do again and again, as from a number of directions I’ve sensed my need to re-focus my trust in the Lord for every element of my life. There’s a particular element, however, whilst true for me is also very pertinent for us all – especially in the UK, right now: we can trust God through the worst storms of life we encounter. Whatever the circumstances, however bad it gets … nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
However, what does it mean to trust God in and during the storm? There’s no better summary to be found than these pearls of wisdom in Proverbs where we’re encouraged to not lean on our own understanding, rather to focus on Jesus instead of all the evil going on around us, His word, His promises, His presence in your life. We can choose to trust in these.
Let me be very British and to start with the weather. Dave Gregory who I applaud for being our Baptist champion for addressing Climate Change, was challenging our BU Council about our response to the Climate Emergency recently and started by asking what people had noticed in the last six months. The first response was ‘wet’. No surprise to anyone! It’s been very, very wet and we’re beginning to get used to it. Extreme weather is becoming our new normal.
It was only in 2015 the Met Office began naming Storms and we’ve had an average of 7 per storm season since then. Storm Ashley, the first named storm of the 2024/25 season, brought wet and windy weather to the UK 20 to 21 October 2024 with the strongest winds across north-western areas. This was a powerful, although not exceptional, Atlantic autumn storm. You may remember the storm brought travel disruption to the worst affected areas in the north and west. Ferry services in western Scotland and Northern Ireland were cancelled and dozens of flights cancelled at Belfast City Airport due to strong winds. In Scotland, some rail services were cancelled or had speed restrictions in place. Large waves battered exposed coastlines with beach material thrown up, and over 200 homes in north-east Scotland experienced loss of power. The Great South Run
in Portsmouth, Hampshire was cancelled because of safety concerns. When I say ‘you may remember’ you will if you were impacted by Storm Ashley.
Here’s the thing – today if you’re a follower of Jesus you’re walking into the storm every day. If you don’t believe me, check the weather – it’s far from conducive to Christianity. When we switch to talk about life ‘storms’, as a metaphor, we are all impacted. I’ve just been away for a wonderful church weekend with Counterslip where Maggie and I belonged for many years. They’d invited Charlotte Curran over from Belfast as their key speaker and it was a wonderful treat to listen to someone who so clearly translated the heart of God through her depth of knowledge of the word of God and her consequent intimate walk with Jesus.
At one point during the weekend Emma shared: “Charlotte, I saw you in the eye of a storm.” A number of things were shared, but this is what grabbed my attention:
“your anointing for now is to bring kingdom storm. God is going to equip you with two things for this next level: Supernatural courage that won’t even feel like that big of a deal. Your passion for him will outweigh any fear of man.”
Having a strong sense the Lord was also speaking to me, I’ve been pondering these words ever since. As I’ve done so my sense is they apply to all of us, as disciples of Jesus. I don’t see this difficult to make a biblical case for, but my, or our response is unlikely to be quite so clear.
When the storm is raging we all want to stay indoors in the warm, but we’re called to walk the way of Jesus, to take up our cross and follow him. Hardly comfortable. Quoting Charlotte (one of the many things I’ve written down to ponder) “we can become more addicted to comfort than the comforter.”
We’ve somehow got crossed wires. To be fair, it’s an endemic problem across the western church, but our shouting culture backdrop is in danger of drowning out the still small whisper follow me.
We are called to walk through the storms, but that’s with him, not without him. That’s when we’re in the eye of the storm, when we’re with him, in his presence. There’s a pertinent moment in Exodus when Moses said to the Lord; “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16).
That’s it. The only thing which will distinguish us from the rest of the world is the presence of God. As churches there are many good things we can do but what sets the church apart is the presence of God. Here’s where the rubber hits the road: we are the church. The church is the collective of people like you and me. Will you refuse to go out unless the Lord ‘sends you up from here’? That needs to become a daily practice if we’re to dwell in the presence of the Lord.
The Lord is doing something quite extraordinary across our nation. People are encountering Jesus from out-of-the-ordinary backgrounds all over the place. And there’s you and I, people who have already encountered Jesus.
“Lord, whatever it takes, I want to stay in your presence. I want to abide in the vine. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24).