Fruitful Abundance

    

 

    The last few weeks have been fighting off  some sort of tummy bug, and when you are raising a large family there is nothing fast about it when each one gets sick one at a time.  The nights leave me extremely tired in the morning. It seems today everyone is on the mend, I have been praying and rubbing backs for what feels like hours through the night.

                 On top of sick children the enemy has been bringing attack after attack. Isn't that just how he works though?! Chris and I have been digging deeper into His word and trusting in areas we never recognised and one after another the fire darts of the enemy started coming. I praise God that right away He reminded me we are not in a battle against flesh and blood and to look past the person and see who our real enemy is! This has brought me so much freedom to continue to walk in love. Even though my flesh hurts!! I know the truth!

 I was so encouraged by our family devotional time as it was about storms we face.
Today was about the sea of galilee and the scientific reasons for how many storms it gets.

    Our lives face storms without warning -an accident , a job loss, a fire, a sudden bereavement. One morning at 1:30, my phone rang. I listened in disbelief to the choking voice of my friend. "Howard, our son died in a car accident tonight. The police officer who told us just left". The son was 17 years old. My wife and I spend the rest of the night with the family. We invited Jesus into our ship of sorrow. I saw in their lives His calming presence. Although the situation wasn't reversed as it was in our daily read from John, I saw the power of God even as the wave of grief swept over the family.
Being confronted by sudden storms doesn't necessarily mean we are outside the will of God. We, like the Sea of Galilee, are prone to storms arising in our lives. Let's call on the Marker and the Master of the seas to give us peace. Sometimes He calms the storms; more often He calms the soul.