We often pray that God will remove our troubles (Aren’t most of our prayers of that nature? Or, we only pray when we run into troubles?) But when God doesn’t answer, we ask why or worse, we doubt God’s love for us.

But has it ever occurred to you that God is the one who might have brought that hardship on you?

Yes, God does bring troubles to us on purpose. Often!

In Mark 4:35, Jesus tells the disciples to get on a boat to cross the lake. But they soon meet a nasty storm so much so that they think they might die! So, they wake up Jesus who was sleeping in the boat! And you know what He does. He calms the storm, and the disciples are now fearful of Him!

Several lessons:
1) God brings to us storms, troubles, and hardships.
2) God is IN the storm with us.
3) The purpose of the storm is for us to see Jesus for who He is.

Think about the implications of these lessons. If you truly understood them, when trouble comes, rather than praying, “God, please remove this trouble from me,” we would pray, “God, let me see you more clearly!”

In your financial woes, do you pray, “Jesus, let me see you more clearly?”
In your singleness and loneliness, do you pray, “God, bring me closer to you?”
In your heartache regarding your children, do you pray, “Father, let me know that I’m your child and let me be satisfied with that?”
Or, do you spend all your time asking God to remove the trouble?

“But what good will it do for us to see God more clearly? Our problems are still there!”

You realize that ALL our problems are because we do not see God clearly, don’t you? When Job in the OT lost all his children, his assets, and his health, God’s remedy in the end wasn’t to restore all those things back to him. No. His remedy was simply to show Job who God truly was. (He does this with a series of questions Job cannot even fathom) Having seen this magnificent God, Job repents and considers his woes as nothing. Only after this, God restores all things back to him….

My prayer for you, especially those of you who are hurting, is, “Lord, please let them see You as You truly are in the midst of the storm. And let them know that You are IN the boat with them, and that would be enough for them!”

Gaze upon Jesus who is riding upon your troubles.

PH