Jesus Said There'd Be Days Like This
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. ”
“When the storm came …”
Years ago, I was working in Tulsa, OK at a furniture store while going through Bible College when tornado warnings started sounding over the radio. My boss told us if we wanted to get home we'd better leave straight away. I raced outside and hopped into my little Mercury Tracer and headed east from Tulsa towards Broken Arrow. It was evening and getting dark fast. Being new to the mid-west and from Australia, tornados held a particular fascination to me. Listening to the radio on the way home I heard that a tornado had touched down just south and to the east of the road I was travelling on and that it was heading north. I had watched episodes of TV shows where people chased tornados around the countryside, and I fancied I might as well try and get a look at the storm. As I raced ahead, the road I was on went under a few overpasses, large concrete bridges. I noticed the highway was empty of traffic and that under each of these bridges people had parked their cars, their lights were on and they were sitting inside their vehicles. 'How odd', I thought, "I wonder why they're parking under the overpass." I drove on. I was a 'tornado chaser'. But as I peered out the window, looking for any sign of the twister, it occurred to me that it was night time- how would I see the tornado? And perhaps the reason the local Okies had parked under the bridge was that they were sheltering from the storm. By this stage, I was close to home. My exciting story of chasing the tornado was tempered by the look of disbelief from my wife, Linda.
Jesus spoke about facing storms in the parable of the wise man who built his house upon the rock. It applies profoundly to every Christian. Most of us are familiar with it.
“As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. ”
This parable is one of those, like the parable of the sower, that teaches on the attitude we are to have toward God's Word if we are to succeed in our Christian life. It also gives us other insights into our Christian walk.
Firstly, it tells us that we are not immune to the 'storms of life'. As long as we are in this world, we will face situations and circumstances that threaten to bring us down. Jesus said, "In the world, you will have tribulation …" John 16: 33. Life's storms can come from different directions and touch different parts of our lives. We face storms on our families, in our finances, in our circumstance and our health. I have observed that Christians can take differing approaches to storms. Some rollover and in a very zen way, turn up their toes in defeat. Others have the attitude that we are victims who must suffer at the mercy of the storm, but God will give us the strength to endure through it all. Others have a more winning attitude, believing that this storm is not going to beat them and even if they are knocked down, "I will never surrender". As I've heard one pastor repeatedly preach, "If you don't quit, you can't lose." The parable also tells us, or at least infers, that it is not God's will for us to experience calamity in the face of storms. It seems that Jesus, the Great Shepherd, was on the side of those with victorious attitudes. In John 16:33, he says, "In the world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world!" The parable of the Wise Man also tells us that the effect of the storm, the outcome of the testing and trials in our lives, is not dependent on the strength of the storm. How strong the storm is should not be the determining factor on whether we 'stand' or not. The determining factor is our willingness to build our lives on obedience to God's Word.
1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that no test comes against us that we cannot overcome. God will either show us how to avoid it, how to fight it, or how to stand in the midst of it.
One final thing that the parable of the Wise Man tells us is the best way to beat a storm, is to prepare for it. The wise man had built a life of obedience to God's Word- of faith put into action. And more importantly- the Wise Man prepared in advance.
One minister I know had for years ran a healing school on behalf of another well-known ministry. People from all around the world would come with a range of illnesses to receive healing. We sat under both these ministries at Bible College. The stories we heard from healing school were both encouraging but also tragic. We heard how time and time again, people with terminal diseases would turn up with only a week or two left to live and expect faith to be built inside them, as if by magic. Or, people would show up saying. "I have two days; then I have to be somewhere else", expecting to rewrite a lifetime of wrong teaching and unbelief in two two-hour sessions.
Just recently, I sat with a young man and talked about healing. He expressed that he had some doubts, although he had no scripture for them. He went on to say that he was listening to people whom he respected who had different opinions about healing, but he wasn't too concerned. In his words, "it just isn't an issue for me right now." I gently tried to warn him that now was the perfect time to sort out what God's Word says about healing because when the time of testing comes, he'd need to have his faith established.
The same year I had my near run-in with my first tornado, I was at work again when the most powerful tornado ever recorded (at that stage) in Oklahoma was touching down northeast of Oklahoma City and heading northeast toward Tulsa. All the folk at work were watching it live as TV footage showed it wiping out whole towns up to a mile wide. Armed with more experience and sensible approach to preparing for storms, I raced home. My pregnant wife, two kids and I prepared the grounds of the house as best we could and shut ourselves in the downstairs bathroom as the storm passed overhead.
We found out later that the tornado had lifted off the ground just a few hundred metres from Oral Roberts University and passed over safely to the other side of Broken Arrow before touching down again in farmland. We were thankful for God's protection.
If God weren't serious about preparing us for the storms of life, he wouldn't have warned us. Let's build our lives on willing obedience to His Word, so we can face anything this world throws at us, and stand victorious.
Written by Pastor Grant Peterson
