THE STORM RAGES, WHAT DO YOU DO?

It’s 5:30 AM and I’ve been awake for a couple of hours.  There’s a thunderstorm raging outside with torrential rain, heavy wind and periodic bursts of the lightening Florida is known for.  Jim, who jokingly says he sleeps the “sleep of the just” is happily zoning away in our bedroom.

Like everyone else, I’m sure, I wake up sometimes with things on my mind that won’t let me rest.  Tonight the storm woke me, but then my mind took over.  My brother is on my mind a lot these days, but there’s also another family issue that troubles me and disturbs my rest.  And then there are the exciting things, like a long anticipated move and furnishing our house.

What do you do when you can’t sleep?  I made coffee and tried reading for a while, hoping it would make me sleepy, but when I went back into bed, my mind was busy and the storm was loud.  So I did what I often do and began to worship the Lord.

Remember the saying, “When you can’t sleep, don’t count sheep, talk to the Shepherd?”  That’s what I do.  Long ago, I hit on what has become such a precious “can’t sleep” activity.  I begin worshiping the Lord for His attributes, beginning with the letter A and working through the alphabet.  I rarely get half way through before my mind lets go of its worries, rests in the awesomeness of my God, and I fall asleep.  I spent time doing that tonight and it was sweet, even if the noise of a storm still robbed me of sleep.

Let me share with you some of my thoughts.

Jesus is Almighty.  Mightier than a storm.  Mighty enough to keep my brother at rest, as if in the calm eye of a hurricane.  Mighty enough to defeat the forces of evil.  Mighty enough to fight all my battles without my having to lift a finger.  Mighty enough to eliminate ameloblastomas.  Mighty enough to change the toughest heart.

Jesus is Beautiful.  Not GQ magazine beautiful, the Bible says there was nothing about Him physically that would attract anyone to Him.  But beautiful in character.  Beautiful in forgiveness, in compassion, in kindness, in mercy, in grace.  So beautiful that He captured the attention of ordinary fishermen, of Mary Magadeline, of Zaccheus, of blind Bartemaus, of little children, of the Centurion whose servant was dying.  So beautiful that the thought of seeing Him one day, of looking into His eyes and seeing His love for me, thrills my soul with anticipation. 

Jesus is compassionate.  He stopped and saw those others ignored.  He touched lepers.  He heard what others didn’t and stopped.  He heard Bartimaus’s cry, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”, and rewarded his faith by healing his blindness.  Jesus saw the widow of Nain, crying as the pall bearers carried the body of her dead son through the streets and He stopped and gave her back her son.  Jesus sees the situations that keep me up at night, He hears my prayers, and He stops, He answers.

Jesus is divine.  One with the godhead, Jesus enjoyed the intimate, unbroken fellowship of Father and Spirit.  He who made all that was made, who sustains it by His Word, was worshiped by angels.  He sits now at the Father’s right hand, having completed the work He was given to do, and now He intercedes for His own as Mediator and Advocate.  

Jesus is eternal.  He existed before anything that was made was made.  His was the voice that spoke all things into being.  He exists above and beyond time as we know it.  

Jesus is faithful.  Faithful to keep His promises – to never leave or forsake us, to finish the work He’s begun in us, to meet all our needs according to His riches in glory, to cause all things to work for good in our lives, to hear and answer prayer in accordance with His perfect will.

Jesus is gracious.  Lavishly, abundantly, beyond all we could ask or imagine.  We don’t deserve a thing from Him, but He gives to His children anyway because He loves us.

Jesus is holy.  Jesus is beyond me, separate from me in His holiness and perfection.  Jesus is fully righteous, pleasing to the Father in all that He does.  Were it not for His perfect, holy life, He could not have been our substitute in death.  

Jesus is just.  All around I see injustice.  Babies destroyed before they see the light of day.  Children abused.  Crimes committed and criminals go free on a technicality.  Wars begun by those who want what others have.  Poverty that robs young people of a safe childhood and a good education.  Scams that prey on the elderly.  One day Jesus will return and establish His kingdom and His justice shall reign.  

On and on I could go, but you get the idea.

The Bible has a verse that says this: “The joy of the Lord is my strength”.  When I worry, my strength wains.  Troubles are too big for me to carry and impossible for me to resolve.  When I focus on them, I can’t sleep.  My stomach churns, my jaw is sore from clenching it.  But when I focus on Jesus - the joy of knowing Him, the joy of contemplating His person and His character, and all the blessings that are mine because of what He did for me, His joy becomes my strength.  It calms me, increases my faith, and allows my mind and body to rest in the assurance that Jesus is well able to take care of anything the storms of life throw at me.

The storm without and within is quiet now.  I’m going back to bed.