Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

— Psalm 46:10

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

— Romans 5:3-5

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

— James 1:2-4

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Abundant grace and mercy from Christ to you!

Then and now, Jesus’ followers never escape His notice. His presence in the storms of our life, His power over the storms and His purposefulness through our storms all matter very much to us. He remains steadfast in His intimate and loving concern for us. Because of His love for us, His people, He exercises His sovereignty—His sovereign control over everything that troubles us. When the waves of life threaten us, Jesus remains with us and works for us. Jesus can conquer whatever conquers us. Jesus has the power to meet any human need.

While we often find ourselves disillusioned when God’s path proves challenging, Jesus desires us to realize our limited solutions and He may allow us to row for hours in unrelenting storms for our faith to grow. He teaches us in our life storms. He comes to us while we row our boat in our life storms frantically and getting nowhere. He measures our struggles in faith-building ways and dispenses His grace abundantly. God loves us too much to let us believe that an easy path confirms His care. We need regular reminders that our strength is small, our needs are great and our God is powerful. Let’s trust God with what we cannot control. Let’s recognize our delusion and desire for sovereignty that belongs only to God. Let’s invite Jesus Christ into our storm-tossed boat.