For several years I traveled the friendly skies for work. There was the lost
luggage, plane delays, cancellations and once being stuck on the tarmac for
over six hours. What I found most disturbing in airline travel was
turbulence. You never knew exactly how long the turbulence would last or
how forceful. It could quickly turn into a much more serious situation. I said
lots of prayers on airplanes.
We often run into turbulent seasons in life as well. I am in one of those
seasons right now. This season could easily go beyond turbulence into a
raging storm if I were not well anchored. In the past, although I was a
Christian, I was not well anchored and the storms of life left me feeling
disoriented, depressed, and somewhat hopeless. I had gotten to a certain
point in my relationship with the Lord and kind of just rested and did not
move forward. I felt I was okay because I was built up to a certain point
and I felt this status quo would sustain me. What I did not realize is that, if
I was not moving forward with the Lord and spending quality time with Him,
I was actually falling behind. My anchor in the Lord had become dislodged
and I was moving out of the calm waters into the turbulent sea, and I did
not even realize it. Has this ever happened to you? Christine Caine
describes this in her book called How Did I Get Here. It talks about how to
reconnect with God and His purpose for your life.
I have been very intentional the last few years to get to know the Lord, to
study and memorize scripture, and to get together with like-minded women to grow in Christ.
The right kind of community is truly immunity! In
Matthew 14:22, Jesus invites Peter to come to meet him and walk on
water. Peter’s faith in the Lord enabled him to walk on water but, when fear
set back in, he began to sink. I am so thankful we know the One who calms
the storm. Getting to know the Lord day-by-day and bit-by-bit anchors us
soundly so that a potential storm is just a little turbulence or maybe nothing
at all. We will not always do it perfectly, but the Lord always invites us to
reconnect with Him, to walk with Him. The Lord is my pilot, and He is in
control, not me. I need to follow His flight plan, knowing that He has good
plans for me for a hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11. He has good plans
for you too and is eager to share those plans with you.
I want to share a prayer of declaration from the book The River of God by
Dutch Sheets that helps me stay on track with the Lord:
I declare that I will allow you to cleanse me; shake me awake from my
complacency, disciple me when I get side-tracked and purge me of anything
that is undesirable or unrighteous or unholy in your sight. I declare that I
will wait with patience for your perfect timing.
I am thankful that we serve a God who has the ability to calm the
tumultuous waves of the seas and still the troubled waters of our lives
despite our circumstances.
