My Defender In The Storm

Video transcript below.

Life is remarkably unpredictable. I have to tell you that the Lord is really teaching me that I can depend upon him no matter what my circumstances, no matter what I’m going through. 

April 1st, I had a long day. I was resting, peacefully in my bed, and the storm alarm on my phone went off. And so I get out of bed and I’m going outside to check and see what the big deal is, and it’s a still night. There’s nothing going on. I’m like, okay, that must be a false alarm. So I go back to bed. Well, as I’m drifting now, back to sleep, I hear a noise, like a freight train, and I bolt out of bed. I look out my window and I see a wall of, I don’t even know what it was. It was a wall of storm coming towards me, coming towards my house. So I ran to the basement. I can still hear the train noise coming. I’m thinking, oh my gosh, I’m going to die. And so, I get to the basement, I text my kids and I’m like, Hey, I think a tornado is about to hit my house. And so my son calls me, he’s in Korea. He calls me, He tries, you know, walking me through, Hey mom, it’s going to be okay.  And I’m like, no. The house was groaning and moaning and popping, and things were flying. I hear things flying around the outside of the house. Then I hear something crash and I can hear water coming into the house. And I’m going, oh, no, I’m just thinking I’m going to die today. You know, the house is going to come crashing down on me. I’m going to be sucked out. And, this continues for like 45 minutes. And I’m just terrified. Terrified is the best way to describe the way I felt. So then finally, the storm subsides. 

I come upstairs and just not even knowing what to expect. The sun’s kind of shining brightly now. And I’m amazed. I came up and both of my, the double, the bolted doors that go to my back deck had been blown completely open. The whole house is full of water. Well, the main floor water, there’s debris everywhere. There’s wet, wet papers. The furniture’s been moved. Because, I’m not going to lie, when we were down, when I was down in the basement, I thought the house was going to fall down. I mean, it was moaning and groaning, like it was about to pop.  I go into my bedroom in the closet, the attic door has been forced up into the attic, the rafters. And, so the wind was just, I mean it’s amazing. It’s amazing. I was amazed that my house did not fall down. That I was not sucked out, that I was not injured. And The adrenaline rush was unbelievable because I was thinking, Lord, I think you just spared me from death. I mean, I couldn’t describe it any other way.  And, so of course, by this time, it’s almost 1:00 AM and I start cleaning up the mess. And, kind of just the adrenaline is starting to make me feel like I, you know, the rush. I’m basically tanking out, right? And, so I go back to sleep. Did not sleep well, as you can imagine.

And the next morning, I’m having my quiet time and it’s kind of surreal. I’m just like, happy to be alive, you know? And so, I’m thinking, you know, Lord, you teach me. Teach me. I need to be taught. You know? And, you know, he kind of, I kind of had this thought that, that I can’t ever be prepared, fully prepared for any physical circumstance or any bad circumstances that’s going to come. But I can be spiritually prepared for whether the storm is physical or spiritual.

Because you know, if you think about the Apostle Paul, for example, you know, he had physical things happen to him. He was beaten. He was shipwrecked. And then he had spiritual attacks too. And who knows whether they were one and the same, right? I mean, Satan, when he’s after us, he’s after us, right? But the Lord just, I was like, Lord, just show me what, what is it you want to show me through your word about what just happened to me? Because it was, it was very—I was rattled. And the Lord, reminded me this physical life is so fragile. My health is tenuous. Circumstances are imminently treacherous. But not so much that we can’t live in peace.

But that peace has to come from our strong, deep belief in God. And he led me to II Samuel 22. And I want to read this. Because when the Lord brought me to this chapter, I just read it and I just cried. I was like, Lord, this is who you are and this is what you do. Help me to just rest in this. And so these are the words of King David, after he had been rescued. The Lord had rescued him from Saul and from his enemies. And he starts by praising God. He says,

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my strength in whom I will trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my savior. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid in my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God. And he heard my voice in his temple. And my cry entered his ears.

And then what happened next? What did God do at the cry of David when his enemies that surrounded him, this is what the Lord did, it says,

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven quaked, and were shaken because he, God, was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Try to get your imagination around this. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came with darkness down under his feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew, and was seen upon the wings of the wind. The Lord thunder from heaven and the most high uttered his voice. He sent arrows and scattered them, meaning the enemies, the lightning bolts and vanquished them. Then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were uncovered, the rebuke of the Lord in a blast of his breath. Then he sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemies and from those who hated me. They were just too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity. But the Lord was my support. He brought me out into the broad place. He delivered me. Why? Because he delighted in me.

Our God, he doesn’t just blast our enemies, but he holds us close. He’s the Father and the mother, right? And the grandma. And then it says, but why did the Lord delight in him? What made the Lord delight in him? David said, he goes on to say,

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands. He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God for all his judgments were before me. And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before him and kept myself from iniquity. Therefore, the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyes. 

You see, David had been born again. He had received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and his soul and spirit were righteous. And then he had lived in pursuit of holiness. He had lived in pursuit of God’s commandments and to live in a sanctified holy manner. So God was like, yeah, you’re my child. You make me, you, I’m, I delight in you because you are my child. And you’re trying to do the best you can according to the word I’ve given you. And then David goes on to say, with the merciful, you will show yourself merciful. With the blameless, you will show yourself blameless.  With the pure, you will show yourself pure, and you will save the humble people. But your eyes are on the haughty that you will bring them down. Then he says, for you are my lamp o Lord. The Lord shall enlighten my darkness.  As for God,  His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in Him. For who is God except the Lord. Who is our rock, except our God. God is my strength and power. And he makes my ways perfect.

You know, if that doesn’t just encourage you to say, Lord, I want to give you a hundred percent. I want you to have a hundred percent of my time, a hundred percent of my business, a hundred percent of my friends, a hundred percent of my heart, a hundred percent of my wealth, a hundred percent of my resources.

You know, you’re looking at this behind me, this house, it could have fallen down on Monday night. And you know what? I still have the most important thing in my life. And that is the strong sense of God’s presence. What a blessing. God never changes. See, our life is remarkably unpredictable. And we can’t absorb the terror of our pain that will come upon us. We can’t absorb it because we weren’t meant to. We were not created to have a life of pain. We were created to know God, who loves us and cares for us better than we care for ourselves. Isn’t that amazing? Don’t you want to know this God?

You know, when we are born again, meaning we surrender our life for salvation and we believe that Jesus came and paid the price for our sin, so we don’t have to. And then, we give our life to him. We believe in him and say, Lord, I take your gift of salvation. I believe that you died for my sins. I know I’m a sinner. I need you. And we turn our life over to him for salvation. That’s the beginning. 

But then as born again, Christians, as we decide each day, each micro decision, Lord, I give it all to you. I give this storm to you. I give my next $10 to you. I give everything I have to you and everything I am to you. Then He is the God of our storms. He is the God who walks us through the pain. He is the God that walks us through the terrors of life. Because they’re going to come. They’re going to come. But God isn’t afraid of anything. He truly is not. He is love. And you know, I think that it’s remarkable. It was remarkable to me to sit through that storm and be terrified. I was terrified. I’m not going to lie. And know that I knew that God. Even if I died, God was going to get glory from my life because I have chosen to live for his glory. 

I’m not perfect, far from it. Every day I have to repent for something I did. You know, Lord, here I am. Yes, I’m your child. Yes. And I’m sorry I’ve done this again. But you know, he’s gracious and he’s kind and his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who love Him. And to love God is to obey him with your, from your heart, because you know that he deserves it. He deserves the honor and the glory. And you know, we were not created to live in this world of pain. But when we decide to let God rule our life, when we let him take control, then we know that even amidst the hardest experiences of hell on earth, that we get to experience a piece of heaven. Because God, God’s presence is heaven. That is, heaven is God’s presence. God, the presence of God. It produces love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness and meekness in us. It is a part of what we will experience for eternity. You know, there’s not any promise that we will have tomorrow. There’s no promise we’ll have the next five minutes. But when we are born again, and we live in hot pursuit of God’s will for our life, then our circumstances, no matter what they are, are dwarfed by the knowledge that we are promised eternity with Him, and that we can experience it now. We can experience the presence of God now as we yield every part of our life to him.

And so I wanted to share this with you because it was such a powerful experience for me. It was so powerful just to know that my creator, he’s coming after me, he’s covering down for me, and he sees the storm, he sees me. He knows exactly where I am. I couldn’t cry out to him in the storm because I was too, I was too scared to hardly move. But he knew that. He knew that. And so here we are, right? I have another day to glorify him and my friend, no matter what storm you’re going through, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he has made a master plan for you. And what you need to do is turn your life over to him. First for salvation, and then to surrender and yield to him every day, every hour, every minute of your life. I guarantee you, there is no greater joy that you’ll experience than the joy of living in the presence of God.

We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.

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