He is there, even there.

I sat there at our Heaven to Earth worship and prayer night for Deeper Still last night.

I felt weak but also sustained. We started to sing one of my favorite worship songs- “It is Well” by Bethel music.

And something grabbed my heart.

The line says this: The waves and wind still know His name.

I just told a friend this week that the waves I’m facing and experiencing right now are so hard and so so confusing and I feel like they are going to overtake me at times. I told her I don’t know how to navigate these waters.

And in that moment last night I realized something. God isn’t absent in the waves. The waves and wind and storms- they know God. They aren’t meant to shipwreck us. They are meant to throw us on our knees and fall onto Jesus.

The waves and wind still know His name.

I think I often think of the waves in life or circumstances as the “I-can’t-do-this” kind of moments. Instead of the “God-is-right-here-and-never-leaves-me."

I imagine being in the middle of the sea, at night, dark and alone in a little fisherman boat. The waves are big, the wind is strong. My natural inclination? PANIC. I mean, hello- what ability do I possibly have to survive something with such tremendous strength?

None.

If I hold onto the boat until my knuckles are white and beg the storm to stop, it’s not going to help. I usually think it will because I am trying to control the storm. But I can’t.

I never could and never will.

God isn’t absent in the storm. He promises to never leave and never forsake us, not for a moment.

I sing this song all the time to my 2 year old who, whenever she hears thunder says, “My don’t like that thunder”…. I sing... “God’s in charge of the weather”. I make her sing it with me while we do a silly dance to try to diffuse the rumbling in the background.

Okay. So if she is 2 and I want her to believe God is in charge, what do I do about my storms?

Then I am to trust God is in charge of these too.

And He is not only not absent in the storm but rather ever present and close and He is the one navigating me through it.

God didn't make it possible for me to navigate a storm by myself. He created the waves so I would learn dependence on Him.

Since this is true, I can find peace in the midst of the raging waters. I can find joy in the midst of pain and I can find rest in the middle of chaos.

And this can be true every time.

“Through it all, through it all, my eyes are on You, through it all, through it all, it is well”.

 

(Song: "It is Well" by Bethel Music)