The Storm Around Me

This week has been a great storm of emotion! Between personal stuff, work stuff, church stuff, and singles stuff, this week could have qualified as overwhelming! To round it all out, there were a couple of announcements made at my church this morning that, while I knew they were coming, still caught me off guard with how emotional I got over them.

Sometimes, do you wonder (like I do) where God is in some of the things happening around you? I KNOW without a doubt He is there, He has control, and nothing ever happens without His awareness. The past, the present, the future, it is already laid out and we just have to trust in Him to make it through the stuff we have to go through.

We had a great lesson and discussion this morning in Sunday School. It was over the entire chapter of Proverbs 3, but we spent a lot of time on verses 5-6, and 7-8 continued to affect me as I reflected on this past week.  The entire chapter is about the rewards of wisdom, but these verses in particular spoke to me.

Proverbs 3: 5-8 (NASB)

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.

I use the New American Standard Life Application Study Bible, and sometimes the footnotes speak to me just as much as the Word does.

Proverbs 3:6 footnote:

To receive God’s guidance, said Solomon, we must acknowledge God in all our ways. This means turning every area of life over to Him. About a thousand years later, Jesus emphasized this same truth (Matthew 6:33). Look at your values and priorities. What is important to you? In what areas have you not acknowledged Him? What is His advice? In many areas of your life you may already acknowledge God, but it is the areas where you attempt ot restrict or ignore His influence that will cause you grief. Make Him a vital part of everything you do, then He will guide you because you will be working to accomplish His purposes.

How incredible are those words? I have no idea who wrote these footnotes in this Bible, but they really get to the heart of things. I’ve seen God answer prayer for me in the last few weeks because I’ve given up control of certain things in my life that I was trying to maneuver, obviously without any level of success.

There is one thing I still try to control and am having very little success with it, but I am also frustrated because I do not see progress or (seemingly) an answer to prayer, just defiance and a refusal to cooperate. I am terrified that the mistakes I have made will have long-term effects and there will be nothing I can do.

In this hurricane happening around me, I see Jesus’s outstretched hand grabbing hold of mine as I am sinking beneath the waves trying to swallow me whole. I grasp on and hang on for dear life, because I know the only way I will get through is to hold on to that nail scarred hand and never let go.