Teachable Woman Podcast - 5 Minutes for Your Day

Finding Purpose in the Storm

Rev. Michele Owes

Rev. Michele Owes: [00:00:00] Welcome, welcome back to the Teachable Woman podcast. This is Reverend Michele Owes, and this is Five Minutes for Your Day.

Have you ever encountered a storm? I'm not necessarily speaking to weather conditions. I am talking about situations that occur due to being alive. There is a high degree of situations and circumstances that appear in your life at one time. You may not like it, you may not know how to deal with it, you may not even appreciate it, and yet you're there.

I had the awesome opportunity of walking with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through some storms over the last seven weeks. And in the process of walking with Him through the storms, I found purpose. Do you remember when Jesus was in the ship with His disciples and He went [00:01:00] to sleep, and the storm arose and the disciples woke Him up?

The story is in Mark 4:35-41, and it bears reading. It says, "In the same day, when the even was come, he said it unto them, 'Let us pass over unto the other side.' And when he had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there were also with him other little ships.

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they awake him and said unto him, 'Master, carest thou not that we perish?'" I wanna pause for just a moment and go over a few key details. One is that Jesus proclaimed that they were [00:02:00] going to the other side.

In verse number 35, He said, "Let us pass over to the other side." Meaning that there was something on the other side that was important, that was critical, that was necessary, not only for His ministry, but for our knowing. And yet Jesus proclaimed that they were going to the other side, but the storms determined that they would manifest to prevent that journey.

And in the midst of the storms coming up, the disciples began to worry, those who were with Him, because the waves hit the ship and the water got into the ship and it was beginning to fill. The disciples were busy looking at the storm. And as a result of the fact that they were looking at the storm, they could not see that the power to calm the storm was in the boat.

So they went to wake Him up and said, "Master, do you not care [00:03:00] whether or not we're gonna die?" Essentially. They said, "Carest thou not that we perish?" And so Jesus woke up, and when He got up, verse number 39 says, "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a calm."

The beautiful thing about it is trouble came and they went to the right place. They went to Jesus. They went to the one person who could make a change in the situation. But Jesus had a question for them. He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" In other words, you've been with me for a while now.

You've seen the power of God in my life demonstrated clearly among you, and yet a storm came and you were fearful And verse 41 said, "And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, 'What manner of man is this, that even the wind and [00:04:00] the sea obey him?'" So from this story, we know a couple of things. One is that when God proclaims something, there's going to be some opposition.

Jesus has said, "We are passing over to the other side," and here comes opposition in the form of a storm. And though this is a weather phenomenon that we're looking at in the Bible, the kinds of storms that show up in our lives are situations and circumstances that occur due to being alive, and some just occur because you absolutely know that you are under attack at this moment.

But it is because something has been proclaimed. And in my life, something beautiful was about to happen, prior f- to those seven weeks, and it was just seven weeks before it came. And in those seven weeks, everything that could, would go wrong did. Things were just happening that it got to the point that I just had to laugh because I knew that I was [00:05:00] under a trial by affliction, right?

But I also knew that God was with me. And in the process of walking through this storm, I had the awesome, and awesome opportunity to take my granddaughters, who were seven and 10, to school. And every morning, while it was still dark outside, we were journeying to school, and we would pray. We would pray the Lord's Prayer that is found in Matthew, the sixth chapter, verses nine through 13.

It's Jesus' example of prayer, to be exact. And so after we prayed that prayer, we began to make our own petitions to the Lord. And before we knew it, we were counting our petitions. There were seven petitions that we had on the altar. And so every morning after we prayed, we would say if God had answered any of those prayers.

And before the seven weeks were up, we looked and God was seven out of [00:06:00] seven. We had laid seven prayers on the altar that we believed that were in His will, but it was also our heart's desire. And then we watched God answer all seven of those prayers before the seven weeks were up. And I said to my seven and 10-year-old granddaughters, I said, this time that you've had to spend with Grandma," I said, "I want you to remember one thing about this time."

I said, "I want you to remember the God that she serves. I want you to remember the God that we prayed to, the God that was seven out of seven, the God that heard our prayers, the God that answered us because we kept our hearts and our minds on Him." I said, "In addition to that, I want you to think of how wonderful it is that God has chosen you at seven and 10 years old to prove to you at this age that He is a God answering God.

A [00:07:00] prayer answering God," excuse me. I said, "You're learning something at this age that some grown adults do not know and do not understand, and yet you've had this experience with Him this early. So if there's anything I want you to remember about this time, it's the God that Grandma serves." And in that moment, I felt such a great release from all of the hopes and dreams and desires that I have for all of my grandchildren, for all of the things that I would personally like to provide for them, because I realized that at that moment, I was doing the one thing that God would have me to do, which is to know the God that I serve and to do what Deuteronomy chapter number six says for us to do in verse number seven, "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, [00:08:00] and when thy risest up."

Whenever we have these opportunities to pour into the lives of our children and our grandchildren and people that we know, now we're finding our purpose, because we are to be a witness for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are to be a witness of what God can do in our lives if we allow Him. So when the storms of life come, take the walk with your Savior.

Put some prayers on the altar and watch and see that He won't be seven out of seven for you as well, because He is no respecter of person. And I wanna say that at the end of that seventh week, when the event, which was the beautiful wedding that was supposed to happen, this godly wedding that was happening, when it occurred, it was everything and more that God wanted it to be.

So don't run from the storm. [00:09:00] Walk through it with Jesus, find the purpose in it, and enjoy. This has been Five Minutes or More For Your Day.