Are You Prepared for the Storm

How many of you feel you are usually prepared for a storm?

What about the weather report? How many are weather watchers? You always check the weather report to see what the weather will be like tomorrow?

So when the weather report is predicting a storm what do you do? Do you grab your umbrella?

Do you feel pretty secure and prepared when you walk out the door with umbrella in hand?

The rain comes you pop up your umbrella and run into the building where ever you are going.

But what if during the storm, the building you need to enter is locked? Then you go back to your car and you have locked yourself out of your car?

You are now standing in the rain for who knows how long with no dry place in sight.

Once you spend a little time standing in the rain with the wind blowing, you find that the umbrella does not block the rain completely. The blowing rain hits your body and begins to soak your clothing. Also, the rising water soon soaks through your shoes making your feet freeze.

You’re not so prepared for the storm after all, are you?

But what if you had really thought it through? What if you had put on the rain suit and rubber boots you keep in the closet? You know, the ones you keep in the closet for just this kind of occasion? The ones you rarely think about or use?

Would you be able to stay out in the storm with these items on?

Yes, I believe you could. You could stay out in the storm as long as was required, couldn’t you?

This is the case with spiritual storms in your life. When you are hit with tragedy or a trial, what ever the cause may be, you must be prepared to weather the storm.

How do you do that?

First, you must take a firm stance in Jesus Christ. You must stand firm in your relationship with Jesus knowing He is your solid foundation. Just like a building doesn’t withstand the storm without a solid foundation you will not stand firm in the storm without being squarely planted in Jesus Christ. So you must be rooted in the saving grace of Jesus if you want to withstand the storm.

Once you are planted, you must prepare yourself daily for bad weather.




Matthew 17:14-22 says this:

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

There are three things this says about overcoming great obstacles:

1. You must cloth yourself in your rain suit. Your rain suit is the Word of God. In this scripture the disciple’s unbelief was the first problem. Romans 10:17 says, so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you want to overcome you must have faith. And faith comes by hearing Gods Word. In order to have faith you must be in the Word of God to the point it becomes your clothing. You can not have the faith required to stand in the storm without being in the Word of God daily. Cloth yourself in it!

2. You need to have your umbrella of prayer open. Some troubles can not be solved by any other way then by seeking God in prayer. The lines of communication need to be clear. You crying out to God in prayer and then listening for answers. He has an answer. You just need to be listening. So pray, and then pray some more.

3. You need to have your boots on. Jesus said, this kind does not go out expect by prayer AND FASTING. Your fasting boots must be on when the water is getting deep or your feet will freeze.

Some obstacles, some trials, some sins can not be overcome without fasting before God. If you really want to draw close to God, if you really need to seek God, take the food from your mouth and put it on His alter as a sacrifice. It was done all throughout scripture. In the Old Testament and the New Testament it was common practice to deny yourself to draw nearer to God. It was done to seek favor, to seek repentance, to find answers, to show humility and to be closer to God.

Jesus himself found it necessary to fast to overcome the testing of Satan. Why then do we believe that it was necessary for Jesus but not so necessary for us?

I will leave you with these thoughts. If you were prepared, if you really used all the tools you have been given, who do you think you would become? And this last question I ask you. Do you really love God enough to do what is required to become who He has called you to be?

Because it’s the storms that will take you there.