Five words...

Storms are so interesting.  In the summer afternoons you can often find yourself driving with bright rays of sunshine reflecting all around.  The clouds are calm, like cotton balls placed delicately in the afternoon sky.  You look out of the window and see birds, bees, trees, and even the occasional walker or runner enjoying the warmth and light.  As you continue to drive you notice the soft clouds give way suddenly to violent and ominous clouds.  

Rain pours down in sheets so thick that you can barely see.  Out of nowhere your windshield is blasted, your tires slip, and you wonder how long will you have to inch along before the storm lifts.  Hours go by, and arriving at home brings no relief.  The lights are out, a circuit is off, the power lines are down, the phones are jammed and busy, the house is hot because after all it is still summer, and lightning transforms your legs or lap into a clinging post for fearful children.  

The same gentle wind now rages and pounds against the walls of the house as if it is no just trying to gain entry, but trying to collapse one wall onto another.  The trees bend nearly to ground before being violently whipped back upright and over again.  The sky of bright soft blues and grays is so dark that noon looks like near midnight and the darkness is only interrupted by the electric neon flashes of bolts ripping through the sky, and the occasional strike and spark of contact.  Minutes turn into hours and hours into afternoons, and afternoons spill into a night.  You wait for the dawn and the hope that the storm will end.

Storms are interesting.  They touch our fears and invoke awe and wonder, solicit prayers, and no matter how long they last we all long for them to end.  We pray that the end will come soon.  Especially when the storms of life hit us with their punches to our gut, their darkness over our futures, and their propensity to usher in uncertainty and despair along with drenching and overwhelming currents.  The storms of life that include the whipping and tossing due to the winds of health, finances, faith, despair, worry, regret, shame, poverty, and loss are no less menacing and worrisome than the storms of wind and rain. 

In these times when the storms of life rages against us we look for answers, relief, and an end.  Our prayers are desperate, longing, filled with emotion and pleading for an end.  We want to hear three words, "Peace be still!"  We don't want to hear just hang in there.  We don't want to know that it will end in a bit.  What we want, what our desperate cry asks for is, right now.  Our desperate plea to God is for rescue and an end to the raging waves and howling wind, right now.  We want to hear the three words he spoke from the boat to quiet the storm.  

But sometimes, the words that calm the storm aren't "Peace be still," or "winds don't blow."  Sure, he could say these words or something very similar.  He could say, "That's enough," "Knock it off," or some other command to cease and desist.  Of course He can, He is God.  He created it all (Genesis 1), even the winds and the waves.  Of course He can, He is God and He makes even the winds and the waves obey Him (Matthew 8:27).  Yes, he even rides on the clouds and the wind (Psalm 104:3), founded the waters and the sea (Psalm 24:2), His voice is like thunder (Psalm 68:3), and there is nothing impossible for Him (Luke 1:37).  So, yes he could totally take your storm and make it end with the three words, two words, or even one word.  I believe the God who cured the sick, raised the dead, and feed five thousand could still the storm without even a word.

But sometimes, sometimes he chooses to use five words.  Sometimes, the words that calm the storm are found in the comfort and assurance that comes from these five words, "I am with you always!"  The winds still blow, the waves still crash, the crisis still exists - but the turmoil of our soul rests in peace because He is with us.  And if He is with us then His peace is with us (John 14:27).  As Leslie Vernic says in her blog Five Words that Can Change Your Life the still of the storm can come from the promises and the power of these five words:

I AM -  That means that He is the almighty, everlasting, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, loving, "I AM that I AM", creator and Savior. 

With - That means He accompanies, He is in the same place at the same time with you, and you are together.  That means that He is in possession of the situation as well as in possession of you and your destiny.  He is with you where you are, right then, right now, and three days from now. 

You - That means you!  He is not just God for others, or with others, or in control of the circumstances of others.  You actually means you -  He is with you.  Yes, you too!  It may be hard to believe because you think that you aren't spiritual, or as holy as someone else.  You couldn't be more wrong, you means you.  He came for you, died for you and gave this promise for you too!

Always - Always means always.  Always means all the time, on all occasions, throughout a long perid of the past and for all future time forever.  Always means repeated forever for always and for good.  Always means each time, at all times and consistently without fail.  It means good or bad, happy or sad, full or famished, high or low, still or storm it doesn't matter.  No matter how you slice it, always just means always!

And these five words remind us that

1 God is our refuge and strength,

    a very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam,

    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

    the holy habitation of the Most High.

5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

    God will help her when morning dawns.

6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

    he utters his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,

    how he has brought desolations on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

    he burns the chariots with fire.

10 "Be still, and know that I am God.

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth!"

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46 (ESV)

I am with you always!  Matthew 28:20

With love (& in triumph),
Cassius