God is in control

A storm was raging at sea. The son of Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson who was on board went over to the captain asking if a disaster could be averted. The captain just looked at him and gently smiled. 

The boy rushed back to the passengers declaring “I have good news for all of you”. The worried passengers asked, “What do you mean?”.  The boy with great confidence said, “I’ve just seen the captain’s face. He is smiling. That is enough. We are safe”.

Some fear life. Some fear death. Only those with unshakeable faith in God fear neither life nor death. When your life seems tossed by cares and worries, picture God smiling over you with an assurance that He is in perfect control of your life. 

Patience and perseverance during life’s worst moments comes only to those who have a restful surrender before God.  The harder the conflicts and pain we experience, the more glorious will be our triumphs. An Eastern monarch asked his courtiers to come up with a slogan that can best explain worry.  The wisest answer was “And this too shall pass away”.

Our bitterest trials are God’s opportunity to reveal His power of deliverance.When you feel you are at the end of the rope hanging over life’s disturbing circumstances, remember that God is holding the other end.   

In the wildest storms great oak trees take deeper root; the best wool comes from sheep in the coldest regions of the world; the finest gold is that which has passed through the hottest furnace.

The fact of life is that we are either coming out of a storm, in a storm or heading for a storm.  But in all these circumstances our Faith should make us believe God is in control in every circumstance. 

Saint Paul shares his unshakeable faith in God with the example of Christ’s endurance in suffering, “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying abut in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

For Paul, adversity never got him down, except on his knees before God in whom he drew hope and strength.