BY NYASHADZAISHE RUSHWAYA
It’s easy to be grateful when things in life are going well, when the bank account is full, when the children are behaving, when your family is doing well and when your health is on point.
But even in difficult times we can find things to be grateful for. Stopping to look for God’s good hand and keep a daily gratitude list helps us see that God is at work all around us even when circumstances are hard.
Storms in life don’t last long, but they are very real. when we look at scripture, we see that every storm in the Bible came to an end just like all the storms that we will experience in life, they will all come to an end.
They were three notable people in the scripture who went through a storm that I remember. There was Jonah, Jesus and Paul. They each overcome it differently. Jonah threw himself overboard, and the storm stopped, Jesus spoke to the storm and it ceased, and Paul survived the storm by swimming to the shore. In this writing we will dwell much on Paul.
When we look in the story of Paul in Acts 27; 22-25 we see that it was during the night when an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him not to be afraid. Paul reminds these men of God’s promise to him that no life would be lost.
As you continue reading the story in acts 27 you will see that God saved everyone but the ship. The ship was destroyed in the process of the storm. When a storm happens they are certain things that will be destroyed definitely.
When we lose our job, when our hustles go wrong, we do not lose our God. He will always be there for us as it happened with everyone in that ship.
When they lost their source of stability, God sent the natives to come along and provide for them. In the same way, during difficult seasons God’s provision, comfort and help might come from the most unlikely sources. Keep in mind that during the storms of life, God’s provision is not seen in God necessarily providing in abundance, but in him supplying for our necessities.
The effects of the storm, while Paul and the people on the ship were going through a very hard time, the people on the island were unaffected by this storm. The natives, as Luke calls them, showed unusual kindness to those who were affected by the storm.
If you know someone who is going through a particular difficult time, it is good time to show kindness to those who have lost their jobs or they might be in emotionally difficult times. it is time to start lending a helping hand to those in need just as the natives did.
We learnt again that things changed quickly for Paul and the prisoners so much that they had to swim where they used to sail.
That might apply to us too, those rapid changes in life which force us to change the environments that we were used to have, the jobs , relationships, don’t lose hope just because one door has closed it does not mean that you should quit, keep knocking, keep pursuing God, don’t lose hope in him.
They will always be that time where we will need to swim where we used sail. I remember when we were called to take my grandmother from the hospital after an accident and they told us that half of her body from the abdomen will not be working again.
We were used to her taking care of us but on this one it was now us taking care of her. They are just storms in life they will come and go and leave you stronger than ever before.
