STORMS

I enjoy reading and listening to Dr. David Jeremiah. I read his daily devotionals and watch his weekly sermons. In today’s devotional, he talked about Storms. The premise of his piece was that every storm can be used by God to shape our faith and character and draw us closer to him.

We all face storms in life, but storms aren’t the result of God abandoning us; they are the result of Him wanting to draw us closer.

We’ve all suffered the loss of loved ones. We’ve all had disappointments in life. Many of us have reached a point where we’re unsure how we’ll even go on. But we did go on. We persevered and we made it through.

Nearly every time that has happened to me, I found strength by turning to God. When I was feeling the burden, turning to Him was my relief. Although there were times when I tried to carry the burden all by myself, sooner or later I came to my senses and realized that wasn’t necessary. All I really needed to do was turn to my faith and give my burden to God.

When I finally had a diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis confirmed, it wasn’t another burden; in some sense it was relief. I had gone for so long being “Suspect for Myasthenia Gravis”, but never truly knowing for sure if that’s what I had. As I mentioned before, this was thirty some years ago and I turned down additional testing for MG for insurance reasons. Back then, a pre-existing condition was reason enough for an insurance company to refuse to insure you, or they may have granted you a policy that included refusing coverage for any pre-existing condition. I chose to live with my symptoms not truly knowing what was causing them rather than taking the chance of not being able to get insurance. Many years later, insurance rules changed and now pre-existing conditions cannot be exempted. When I was finally diagnosed, it was almost a relief because now I could start on treatments that would help control my symptoms.

So, for me, my storm was living without knowing and God helped me through. Now, I face another storm. Since Myasthenia Gravis is a progressive disease, none of us really knows what lies ahead. Isn’t that the very definition of fear from a storm? It isn’t the winds or rain that actually frighten us, it’s not knowing how bad they will get. That’s the storm with MG: not knowing how bad it will get. Just like we’re unable to stop a storm; we’re unable to stop MG. The good news is God is willing and able to help us through this challenge.

When I begin to worry about tomorrow, I try to give tomorrow to God and focus on enjoying all the things He has blessed me with today. I am surrounded by blessings. All I need to do is appreciate them and my worries of tomorrow go away. That’s God helping me through a storm.

When you find yourself going through a difficult time, turn to Him. He is using this difficulty to grow the relationship you have with Him. So let it go and start appreciating the many ways He has and will continue to bless you.