And so, we are in May already, Easter seems an age ago – let alone Christmas! I’m sure like me, your elders used to tell you that time goes quicker the older you get – and now I find it’s quite true.
But thankfully signs of spring are everywhere around us, how blessed we were to have such wonderful weather for our Churches Together Good Friday service and such a beautiful sense of community as we come together to remember Jesus’ death on the cross. At this time our gardens are bursting into colour – not to mention the weeds that come through as well, and new life is all around us, lambs in the fields and baby birds taking their first tentative attempts at flight, a constant reminder of that glorious Easter morning. After the whole raft of emotions through Lent to Holy Week and finally to Easter Day, I’m sometimes left with the feeling of ‘what now then?’ Of course, the Easter story doesn’t just go away, wrapped up in a box until next year, the power of the resurrection is with us 24/7, 365 days of the year.
I do think this is a good time to take stock of where we are on our journey of faith and to consider what it means to walk with God in our daily lives. We all experience good times and bad times in our lives be it through ill health, relationships or things that we simply shy away from through fear. Of course, it is relatively easy to be Christian during the good times, I don’t think I need to say anything about that! but the struggles of life are more challenging to our faith, and this is when we need it most.
I am reminded of Luke’s gospel which tells of Jesus calming the storm.
Where is our faith when we find ourselves in the storms of life? How do we respond when faced with the problems of life? Fear is our natural reaction, the feeling of losing control, things being taken out of our hands. But just as Jesus calmed the storm - even the winds and the water obeyed Him – Jesus will calm the storms in your life if we only hand it over to Him. We are told in Philippians – We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.
Faith in God cannot make the difficult times go away but can certainly ease the burden. When I look back on any struggles I’ve had I know now that I have learnt from them and more importantly my faith in God has grown.
Faith is the key to dispelling our fears and our concerns, and faith comes from knowing the Word of God.
God has a plan for all our lives, God walks beside us all of the way and gives us all we need to deal with all situations. God knows the storms you are going through and He wants you to reach the other side of your particular stormy lake.
Just make sure God is in the boat with you and all things are possible.
God bless,
Julie
