GROWING SEEDS: "COME....Let Me Walk Through Life With You"

 

"The biggest thing God is doing in your life is teaching you to trust Him.
And faith in Him usually leads you through difficulty, not around it."

Many years ago, I found myself in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a small fishing boat for an 8-hour deep sea fishing excursion.  A storm was brewing ahead of us and about 45 minutes into the eight hour day, most everyone was hanging off the side of the railing giving up their breakfast.  Somewhere between throwing up the eggs and the toast, I remember thinking, "I'd give everything I own for a helicopter rescue right now."  I was desperate...I was scared....and I wanted off that boat!

It's interesting that most times God doesn't detour us around life's difficulties.  He leads us right through the big fat middle of the storm....where we get hit in the face with the blinding rain, the hurricane-force winds and we become intimate friends with the railing on the boat.  Where this life's journeys take us through cancer, through train wrecks, through miscarriages, through heart attacks and yes, even through death. 

We tend to say, "Father, show me how to go AROUND the storm....how to pass OVER the fire.....how to AVOID the waves altogether."  But He smiles that loving smile of His, looks us straight in the eye and says, "No, I want you to understand I'm deeper than the water, My presence is more mighty than the wind.  And I want you to be able to trust Me in any situation, and the only way you're going to learn that is by going through the storm, not around it."

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, Liz." 
Isaiah 43:2

And then He holds out His strong and scarred hand to us and says, "COME....let Me walk through it with you."