God Didn’t Remove the Storm, Now What?

So often we see the photos of sunrises and sunsets blaze across our screens. and in person, and it’s easy to see His glory. (Ps 19) The sheer magnitude and beauty of God is surely on display. When things are bright and the skies are clear, it’s so much easier to trust the work of His hands.

A hush falls when the skies turn to stone, the threat of a storm brewing.

Can we still trust that He is at work when the storm rages forth and the air cools to welcome thunder? What is the work of His hands when it draws forth something we don’t understand through any human reasoning? What of the flame that follows the charge of lightning?

What good is a flat gray sky and whipping winds that make it so hard to find His voice?

Is God still good when He seems silent even when we are clinging to Him? Is God still loving when our weakness is on display and our soul cries a lament to Him? Is God still near when it feels nearly impossible to open the pages of a well-loved Bible? Why won’t He remove all these painful experiences?

It’s in these moments where what we truly believe is revealed. Trials and hardships - the time we spend in the valleys and low points are what can teach us the most about God and who He actually is.

Many Christians define “good,” differently than God does. Good for us usually falls in the realm of what is actually easy for us to do. Good in God’s eyes is defined in what makes us more like Christ and matures us. (Rom 8:28-29) When we redefine goodness as God sees it, more of scripture makes more sense—how else could we count it all for joy that we face trials?

So what if the storm in your life right now, the painful things that God doesn’t seem to be taking from you, are actually the things that He is using to transform you?

Following Jesus is the least comfortable thing in our lives, and it’s by design.

When He asks you to persevere, friend, press in. Keep going.

As the storm moves through, His voice will soothe the pieces of you that feel overwhelming. Maybe this period of your life isn’t about understanding, but about abiding and finally releasing the parts of your old self and your old strengths that you’ve been using and allowing God to form something new within you. The chill of the rain may stream down your face…but what will it produce in the soil of your soul?

Maybe the strong winds and earth shaking thunder are meant to tug those rocky weaknesses out. The rain is to seep into the seeds He so carefully laid and enrich the soil He specifically tilled up for these exact moments.

The work of His hands may not seem beautiful by human standards in the messy middle of growth.

But, what it can produce when laid into His hands is a fruit that can only be borne out of perseverance and struggle. A faith tested is a faith refined, the perseverance a finishing piece to mature it. (James 1)

It would be so much easier for God to take every storm and allow ease to take the place of peace. And yet, the struggle and silence draws from us a deeper sense of what it is to trust Him in every season and worship Him even when the storm seeks to steal the air from our lungs.

God is always good—and nothing in His hands is wasted. Not even this hardship, not the confusion, not the pain that you don’t know how to voice just yet.

This is just the beginning.