Courage in the StormSample

Distant from God

Knowing that Jesus prays for us gives us great courage. The disciples wanted Jesus on the boat during the storm. We want Him with us during our trials, yet we need to trust that He’s praying for us. Solitude and prayer will also do us some good, won’t they? We follow His example. Prayer has parallel lanes involved. Jesus is in a parallel lane. He’s praying on the mountainside, and the disciples are on the boat going through wind and waves. The disciples are experiencing a storm and I am pretty sure they do not sense the peace of God. However, this is what I want you to understand: Distance from God is a feeling, not a fact. It’s a strong feeling indeed. Have you ever felt distant from God? “Lord, where are You? God, are You mad at me? God, do I even know You? Are You even around?”

Distance from God is a feeling, but you have to hang on. The sun will rise again. This, too, shall pass. His mercies are new every day. Great is thy faithfulness. For nothing can separate us from heaven. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

When we are going through this time of feeling, our hearts have overestimated earth. Do you ever overestimate earth?  We believe earth is supposed to be a place where everything is going to be awesome. There are a lot of great things about earth, it is true. But it is not always awesome on planet Earth. Life on earth has times of struggles and pain. The truth is, our generation, living in the United States of America, has it better than 99% of history and the world. Yet life is still difficult, isn’t it?

We can’t overestimate earth. This is not the place where everything’s going to be perfect. Earth has a lot of pain, sacrifice, and trials, which get us longing for heaven. Yet for many of us, those pains and struggles have us longing for somebody else’s life. We desire other people’s lives. If I just had their money. If I had their spouse. If I had their job. If I had their house. We read magazines or scroll through social media to look at other people’s lives every day. I have said this before: if you read Better Homes and Gardens magazine every day, you will realize that everybody else has got a better home and garden than you do! Everybody has something better. Just look around. Even if you have the best, there is somebody with something better.

The longings of earth not satisfying has a purpose—to create a longing for a heaven that does satisfy. The purpose here on earth is not to flip lives or live vicariously through somebody else. Earth is about longing for heaven.