My husband Mike and I watched a movie a few years ago called ‘God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness‘ that revealed the truth about Spiritual storms and emotional resilience.
In the movie, a Pastor faces a crisis that shakes his faith.
We live in a Spiritually storm-prone world. Nothing proves that more than the storms we are going through right now!
Consider the hurricanes that can affect coastal regions.
People who live in these regions know that it is possible that a devastating storm could occur at any time.
So they practice disaster preparedness ahead of time because it is a wise thing to do.
The Need for Spiritual and Emotional Resilience
Consider the parable about Spiritual disaster preparedness Jesus told in Matthew 7:24-27:
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Jesus said that the same storm befell both people:
- Rain descended
- Floods came
- The wind blew and beat against both houses
But did you spot the difference between the two people?
Both people heard God’s word. But only one of them put God’s word into practice.
That wise person was able to stand when life’s storms came. Such a person is resilient, which means the ability to recover quickly when faced with challenge and adversity.
This includes remaining emotionally stable, maintaining peace in the midst of the storm.
Here’s the truth: The storms of this world are going to come. They will become more severe.
You can see it in the cultural shifts happening every day and diseases ravishing the world.
Only the people who heed Jesus’ words AND practice them will remain standing.
The rest will fall away.
Remaining faithful in little things trains you to be faithful in major things.
That is the major value of our health/weight loss journey; it trains us to become people of resilience!
My prayer is that we never forget that life storms are going to come. We can’t get around that.
However, what we can do is prepare ourselves for the storm Spiritually.
What Believers Must Know about Weathering Storms
Our Pastor said the following about storms recently (from my sermon notes):
What every believer needs to know about storms:
1. Your attitude toward storms defines your level of success.
2. How you maneuver through storms expose any limits to your potential (storms reveal your weakness).
3. Storms uncover flaws in your plan that may lead to catastrophe.
4. Storms are wake-up calls to divine creativity
When you come through the storm well:
- God is glorified
- Others are electrified
- You are qualified (ready for promotion to the next level)
It is essential to secure our foundation because we just never know when a storm is going to come!
Let us be diligent in prayer, praise, worship, and putting God’s word into practice in our lives every day.
In that way, we can be assured that we will remain standing in our Savior when the storm has passed.
Be Blessed with Health, Healing, and Wholeness,
Kimberly Taylor
Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple Weight Loss Community
P.S. Do you struggle with overeating sugar? If so, you are not alone!
Overcoming sugar addiction was a key factor on my weight loss journey; I lost 85 pounds and dropped from a size 22 to an 8.
In our 14-day Sugar Detox Challenge online course (inside the Take Back Your Temple Community), you’ll get the same success strategies and support to gain peace in your eating habits and achieve lasting weight loss.
Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple Christian Weight Loss Community.
This message is timeless and very much needed today. Not only are the storms coming but many are here already and they are also becoming more frequent. That’s just like the Enemy to bombard us with problems/storms in order to shake us up and cause us to fall. But my/our GOD said: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19 We are living in the End Times and we MUST fortify ourselves with the Word of God coupled with faith. Thank you so much for sharing this post Kimberly. It is a much needed reminder. XOXOXOXO
Amen, Debra – I agree and pray our Sister and Brothers in Christ to heed ❤
How powerful to remember that God uses our journeys of faith (weight loss/breaking old habits/forgiving/mending relationships) to build resilience in us and for His purposes. I often have felt too broken or weak for God to use, but He leads me to wholeness and uses me in ways I don’t even know to reach out to others in their journey. Glory be to God!
Exactly, Judy! It’s a beautiful process, challenging at times, but always worth it because we get to know God better on the journey and also share Him with others 🙂
Your post is right on time, currently dealing with some storms at work that are my fault. Thank you for the encouragement and reminding me to focus on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
You are welcome, Rick – may the Lord continue to bless you, Brother!
Holy Spirit has spoken to my spirit of an impending storm. So real was the impression, I found myself looking toward the west several times, expecting to see a black sky approaching. So I googled, “spiritual storm” and yours was the first article I came across. I want to thank you! I believe this is exactly what the Lord was leading me to. And THEN…lol… I saw the question regarding sugar addiction and was convinced 100%, I was where I needed to be. Just a few days ago, I’d mentioned to the Lord that I’ve become addicted to sugar. Praise God…from whom all blessings flow. And you are a blessing!
Thank you for that confirmation, Lisa – with the Lord’s help, we can remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord!
Thank you for this timely message. You are always spot on. May we stand firm in the Lord and follow His lead no matter what comes!!!
Amen, Sister!
Good afternoon many time we fail to understand that only God can lift us up from any storm that comes before us. Thank you so much to making sure we believe in God all the time.
Kim, This lesson is an incredible encouragement to me. In June we heard our son had an arachnoid cyst and hydrocephalus, and was scheduled for a chiari decompression. By the time I heard all of this I nearly fainted. Truly a storm of colossal proportions in my world. But as the rains came, the Lord guided us and carried us and strengthened us to bear up under it. I thought that was nearly more than I could bear, but was so thankful for the Lord’s truths and promises. Two weeks later my dear husband had a heart attack, and we went back to the hospital again for a long visit. And the rains hit against the house, and the house built on the rock of Jesus Christ stood firm. And we thanked God for the truth of His promise to be with us and never leave us. And, then last week as I was having coffee with my girl friend, thanking God it was over, I got a text from my husband that he was home. Racing home, fear filling my heart as I prayed and asked God to grant life to my beloved, I got home and talked to him, discovered he had had another episode that felt like just before his heart attack. God calmed my heart with psalm 37, and as He gave me strength, I called the cardiac surgeon who sent us back to the ER for tests. There was no heart attack but a viral colon infection! When it rains, sometimes it pours. So now, hearing your words, I am comforted. It is true! The rains came and the floods but the house built on the rock stands still. Having God’s precious Promises, and truth to guide us makes all the difference in the world. His Spirit comforts. His people too. I can’t imagine going through life without our Lord to hold us up and carry us when it is too much for us to bear. The other night as I was feeling sad at some of the trauma we have experienced, my daughter was watching the movie ‘love comes softly’, and the man said, “God’s love is not demonstrated in keeping us from suffering, but in being there with us through it”. He said, if my little girl fell down, I would pick her up in my arms, hold her, comfort her, and help her heal, because I am her Father and I love her. That is what our Heavenly Father will do as we go through trials if we let Him comfort and hold us. Because He is our perfect Father.
Thank you Kim, you wrote another gem. Wished you lived next door so I could give you a big hug! Your words are so dear to me. They comfort and strengthen like Jesus’ words. Keep listening to His heart.
My goodness, Debra – that is a lot of tribulation to go through! Reading that your house stood and continues to stand through all that is an encouragement to me and I am sure it is an encouragement to others who will read it. How faithful is our God and how He excels in strength! I pray the Lord continue to strengthen, help, and uphold your family in Him, according to His word and promise. Stay blessed, Sister!
Kimberly,
Great Word and reminder. I remember a speaker I was listening to talking about keeping our walk and prayer life strong because we never know the challenges we may face.
Thank you!
So true Shelly! Right now, we are having an ‘Armor of God’ at church and the principle is the same – preparation. We have to be fully armed because we never know when the enemy’s fiery darts are going to come!
Kimberly, this came at a time that I am in a tsunami! My youngest daughter, 28, has been through MANY storms including being adopted, losing her brother to a drug overdose, suffering abuse from a gymnastics coach who recently committed suicide, being obedient to God and reconciling with her very immature husband and then finding out she’s pregnant. Our biological son, a pastor, has been under constant enemy attack after moving his family to Africa and London but having to move back to the US when his wife’s rheumatoid arthritis went out of remission. The upheaval has affected his wife’s support of him, his teenage girls’ belief in God, and his 9 yr old’s emotional stability. My oldest daughter has 8 children, the youngest 2 being adopted 2 yrs ago. Their adjusment has been very traumatic, and 2 of her older children struggle with depression. My dear retired-pastor-daddy, after 4 years in hospice, is finally passing any day…and I’m scheduled for knee replacement surgery on Nov 5, for which I’ve waited since July, in constant pain! Before all this, I had lost 35 lbs and kept it off for 2 yrs, but in the last 5 months I’ve put 25 back on! I can hardly clear my head enough to pray…worshipping with music seems to be the only way I can reach out to God right now. I am numb with fatigue!
Hi Linda – I am praying for you right now. This is a 911 situation – as in Psalm 91:1-2:
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust (Psalm 91:1-2).”
One thing that helps me in the midst of stress is to draw 2 circles – a big circle and a smaller circle in the center of the big circle. The big circle is called the ‘Circle of Concern’ and the smaller circle in the middle is called the ‘Circle of Influence’. Write everything that you cannot control with your circle of concern. Those would be everything that is happening with your children, your family. These things are not happening to you directly, but to them.
Because you cannot control any of that, I recommend writing a letter to God all about it. This is praying on paper – not type it but write by hand. Again, the Circle of Concern is for issues that you are concerned about but cannot control directly. A big issue for most of us is that we cannot control another adult’s behavior. We can influence it but cannot change it. They must make the decision to change for themselves.
As I mentioned, the Circle of Influence is much smaller than the Circle of Concern. To me, this is like the eye of the hurricane. Peace and stillness is in the eye. These are the only things that you can control. Write your own actions here. You can control your own prayer, praise, worship (worshiping with music is great), bible study (listening on audio or sermons on YouTube is great). You can control what you eat and exercise, even if stretching using your upper body – all of the Spiritual, emotional, and mental things that would help you cope with what is happening around you. You can reach out to talk with a Godly friend, take a walk in nature. Each day, think of something that can refresh and strengthen you. This is your stability.
Again, my Sister, this is a lot that is happening around you. Much of the things that happen around us are things we cannot control, only release to God. But the things that happen within us and our own decisions, we can control. May the Lord show you His care and concern for you in this season as He walks with you during these storms!
1 Peter 5:6-8 – ”Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Oh Kimberly & Linda, Thank God for his goodness & mercy that shall follow us all the days of our lives!! I needed this soooo much!!! There are big storms in my children’s lives right now & it totally overwhelms me, trying to figure out what I can do to help when in the end I can do NOTHING but PRAY & trust GOD!! Why is that not enough for me, knowing that God can take care of it all & he KNOWS all!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!
Thank you, Kimberly ! We are most blessed to be believers during these (very evil, IMO) times. I know I need such encouragement.
Oh sister as I read your comment I can feel the struggle. I’ve got tears filling my eyes. I realize this was all happening years ago but I trust that all is well or better because our Father is faithful. Be blessed my victorious sister
God is Amazing ! It’s 2:55 in the morning and I cannot sleep because of a storm I’m going through business wise. I was accused of saying something I did not say and it’s hurting me so bad. I’m running scenarios of why this is happening to me. Instead of praying and praising I’m allowing my emotions to get the best of me. Thank you for your service of sharing God’s word. This article was truly a blessing for ne
I am glad, Robin. We serve an on-time God!
Will you please fix my name. It’s Mercedes. Not Metcedes. Thank you.
Done – thank you for your confirmation, Mercedes!
Thanks very march my dear, may our Lord Jesus Christ who knew everythings guid us through this storm.
Thanks our concernce may our Lord bless you and your family.
I needed to read this, and have the reminder. Important to listen to His word and follow, so as we do not fall in the storm. Thank you.
Really like the message! I’m thankful The Lord is my anchor in the storms in my life. I may buckle in the wind so to speak, but He keeps me anchored so I can refocus and recover more quickly. I am an emotional eater and am learning to deal with those issues more calmly. ” Be still and know I am God,’ one of my go to verses in tough moments. Thank you for helping to put into words to describe those stormy moments.
You are welcome, Julie. God is good…all the time!