That You May Know

by Susan Sampson

There are seasons in our lives when the waves are calm.  But many times, the waves are rough and their will always be a “great windstorm” which causes the waves to “break into the boat” (Mark 4:37).  Praise God for there is purpose in the storms.  The Lord always uses the storms for our good and His glory.

These storms can’t be managed or controlled.  They can’t be fought with human wisdom or strength.  Only Jesus can rebuke the wind.  Only Jesus can speak to the waves.  The wind and waves obey Christ alone.

He is our only Hope.  Our Living Hope: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). 

I thank the Lord for Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:17-19 that we would know the hope of our call.  That the Lord would give us a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of our hearts enlightened. We need Christ!  Apart from His grace we cannot see.  Apart from His grace we will continue to believe the lies.  Apart from His grace the lies seem so true and so very comfortable.

When I fell down our stairs and dislocated my shoulder they put my shoulder in a sling to keep it from coming out again.  In a recent Who Am I in Christ lecture, as Laurie was describing how we all put the lies on like clothes and she wrapped her arms around herself, I could suddenly picture my arm in my sling.  It had become my protection.  It was my security.  I was so afraid of the pain I stayed bound to the sling.  And in turn it caused my shoulder to become frozen.

But the Lord graciously intervened and sent me to a second doctor.  He gave me a painful shot in the shoulder and told me to take off the sling and go to physical therapy!  There was one day at PT my therapist looked me in the eyes and said, “Do you trust me?  Do you trust me?”  I could hear the Lord speaking to my heart.  In order to overcome I had to willingly endure the pain.  I needed flesh therapy.

We are called to be free.  Jesus rescued us from the kingdom of darkness.  He doesn’t want us to live there any more!  We are called to live a new life in Christ.  To no longer live bound in chains, slaves to our sin.  To blast through the lies with all the powerful truths of God’s Word.  We can enter into this new reality by faith, knowing the riches of our glorious inheritance and believing in the immeasurable greatness of his power.

We are weak.  We are not strong.  Only Christ is strong.  But He has promised that when we are weak, then He is strong.  So let us confess our weakness and inability and put our faith in Him.  Let us give all our time and effort to search for the pearl of great price.  Let us choose to exalt Christ and not self.  To fix our eyes heavenward, off the wind and waves and onto our beloved Savior.

That we may know….(as the song says), “All [we] have is Christ.  Jesus is [our] life.”