One of the things you can count on in life is to be hit by unexpected storms. Those tempests in your life can throw you off course.
Some storms can feel so devastating that you start to believe there’s no escape.
I can’t help but think of a longtime acquaintance of mine who reached out to me a few years ago. I hadn’t seen him in quite a while, so I was keen to get together and catch up.
Within a few moments of sitting down, he proceeded to tell me that his marriage was breaking up. He and his wife were separated and going to get divorced because he’d just discovered that one of his best friends—who’d been mentoring him—had been having a longtime affair with her.
This other man had been involved in my friend’s marriage ceremony, had counseled him, and they’d even gone to church together. He said to me, “Bayless, for all of those years when I was having marriage troubles, I’d go to him and he’d counsel me about my marriage. Yet, he had been sleeping with my wife while he was counseling me!”
He was devastated because the whole time he was talking to his friend and confidant about the stuff he was struggling with, his friend had then turned around and used those things to seduce my friend’s wife. And he’d won her heart.
The tempest my friend was in threatened to sink him emotionally and spiritually. His faith in God was shaken. He became bitter and cynical for a season and distrustful of anyone in a leadership role.
Though his marriage did not survive the storm, he did.
God restored his confidence, his peace, and his faith. He’s gone on to live a fruitful, blessed, and significant life.
Maybe you’re going through a tempest or a storm in your marriage today. Maybe it’s with your family or your finances. Perhaps you’re feeling waves of anxiety at work. Or the storm may be about your health.
Whatever the tempest, it hasn’t taken God by surprise, and He’s prepared a pathway of deliverance for you.
You need to know there is indeed an escape, and it starts by persevering in prayer.
In Psalm 55:16–18, David says this:
“As for me, I will call upon God, and the LORD shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me.”
Truly, the battle is against your soul, against your emotions. But notice that as David talks about his confidence in God to save and deliver him, he says, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud [to God].”
Sometimes when you’re caught in the storms of life and you feel the tempest all around, it affects you so deeply emotionally that those wounds take time to go away. It takes endurance—praying “evening and morning and at noon.”
So don’t be discouraged if you feel like your situation is beyond escape. It isn’t.
Reach out to God in consistent prayer and trust Him. Because He WILL hear your voice and send deliverance and salvation—just as He did for David.
