DIVINE APPOINTMENT IN STORMS AND SHELTER

TORNADOES: So many people have experienced storms and tornadoes this year - many to their sorrow - others, in gratitude that they were spared the destruction that some experienced. I stood at my window today listening to the wind and watching the hail. As I listened and watched, I wondered if it was too soon to get into my "safe place". My safe place is my utility room - the central most room away from windows in our home. As I stood there I was once again reminded just how helpless mankind is in the face of some of life's storms. I had experienced this before when we lived in Fairhope, AL and watched as hurricane Katrina came tumbling through the Gulf and caused such havoc, destruction, and death.

As I thought about Katrina and the storm I was presently facing I was reminded that in reality my "safe place" was not a utility room, although wisdom would dictate I go there if the need so arises. But, let's face it - even a safe room didn't help some going though Katrina nor others who have experienced tornadoes this past year. Those rooms may have indeed been the means of safety for some but they were not the ultimate cause of their survival.

Psalms 91:1-4 states: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say to the LORD, "My REFUGE and my FORTRESS, My God, in whom I trust!" For it is HE who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence. HE will cover you with HIS pinions and under HIS WINGS you may seek SHELTER (or REFUGE); His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

As I looked at the storm facing me from my window and realized that my real safety was not a utility room, it dawned on me also that I had no control over the storm. I did not cause the storm and I could not direct the storm. That's just like a lot of the storms which come into our lives by way of various trials and circumstances. They may come (as in the life of Job) for NO reason of our own - nothing we have done to cause them. And, like Job too, there is nothing we can do to control them. Some storms just have to take their course as we find refuge in the LORD and wait his timing for the end of the storm. I have watched many storms this spring last a significant amount of time and others I have seen last only a few minutes. That also may be the case with many of the trials we face - some may seem to never end and others may last only a short time. But, in each of the storms whether long or short, I had to simply WAIT and find SHELTER until the storm was passed.

If you are facing a storm in you life today, whether the literal storms of a tornado or the stormy trials of life, take SHELTER in the ONE who controls it all and rest in HIS SOVEREIGN purpose for it. That's the only real "safe place" for us to find shelter. May HE hide you under the shadow of HIS wings in whatever trial or storm you may face today.