BE STILL IN YOUR STORMS-SERIES 3

(Storm increases your Faith)

MARK 4:35 -41

 

In Mark 4:40 And He said to them “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?

We should understand that we pass different storms not to harm us, not to kill us but to strengthen us.

Our storms come in our life to strengthen and increase our faith.

3.       INCREASES OUR FAITH

The storm in our life brings fear. It brings us anxieties.

“But storms should increase our faith as faith could be best practice in our storms.”

 

Our faith could only be stretched out when we practice it.

Our muscles expand more after regular work out. An athlete who went through a rigid training is more strong, agile and determined than an ordinary person.

Your storms are instrumental in the growth of your faith. The more storms you have, the more muscles your faith will have.

GROW IN FAITH

Is it not your happy when you have a bonsai plant and your friend like it because it’s small?

When you parade your pet Chihuahua dog; everyone says that it’s so cute.

But how about our faith? Will God be happy if our faith after five or ten years attending a prayer meeting or going to church and it still remains small?

Will you be happy that we have a cute faith?

Our faith should grow over time. Although the requirement for us is to have a faith at least as small as mustard seed, however, it should not remain as small as it is.

Our faith needs to develop and one way to grow it is by practicing it in our storms.

STORMS ARE ATTACK IN OUR FAITH

Storm comes sometimes undetected.

In November 2013, a super typhoon Yolanda, with sustained winds of 235 kilometers per hour with gusts of 275 kph when it made landfall devastated the southern part of the Philippines.  By those measurements, Yolanda would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the US, nearly in the top category, a 5. It left Tacloban and other islands in total devastation, leaving the area like a ghost town.

But the strongest typhoon met the strongest people in earth.

In our spiritual world, storms are attacks in our faith. It comes so that we lose and waver our faith.

It’s an enemy’s assault to make you vulnerable, weak and defeated. When your our storms are battering us, we tend to give up, blame and question God why He allows all of this things to happen.

The enemy brings storms in our life not to attack you but because he want to attack our faith.

FAITH AS VALUABLE COMMODITY

For the enemy, our faith in God is like valuable commodity.

It’s like an exchange of trade and the enemy what we could become because of our faith.

Because with faith we can please God.

With faith we can have answered prayers.

With faith we can do miracles.

With faith we can touch the heart God.

That is why, he send so many storms in our life because he know what we could become. The enemy knows where God is taking us.

When you lose your job, the enemy is not after your money but he is after your faith.

When your marriage is in the brink of separation, the enemy is not interested in your husband; he is attacking your faith.

When your car was impounded by the bank due to non-payment, the enemy is not after your car, he is after your faith.

Storms should increase our faith as faith could be best practice in our storms. 

Uncommon faith brings uncommon results.

WALK BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT

Because when we are in the midst of our storm, we may not feel Him, we may not see Him, we may not heard of Him but it does not indicate that he already jumped off from our boat.

In the midst of storms, it is dark there, it is not quiet and we cannot see him.

He wanted us to stir our boat not from what we know but from what He could do.

When we focus our physical eyes on our surroundings, we will be disappointed.

But instead of fear and doubt, fill our boat with faith.

When we are so conscious about our storms, we will be terrified when the water is filling up our boat.

Like Peter, he already walked on the water but he was distracted by the strong wind that he saw, he slowly sunk down. Jesus told him that how little was his faith.

Don’t expect God to be sensual in our storms.

Because we may not see or feel Him physically, but with faith we will know that He is always in control.

That is the reason why we have to walk by faith and not by sight.

May your storms stretch the muscles of your faith,

Mikesendon