Luke 8:25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
The weather can make or break a day. Here in Alabama, we are in the midst of the most perfect weather, cool in the mornings and comfortable during the day with lots of sunshine. We will get this for a couple of weeks before the oppressive heat and humidity return for at least six months. This weekend we have so many outdoor plans including baseball and an outdoor wedding, but the forecast seems to indicate that it will all be affected by rain. There are times when the weather can even cause catastrophic damage to property or lives, doing more than ruining our day.
The opening of Luke chapter eight begins with Jesus teaching His followers the parable of the Sower. Then in verse 22, Jesus instructed His twelve disciples to get in a boat and cross a lake. Jesus fell asleep and a great storm threatened to overtake the boat they were in. The storm came out of nowhere and the disciples were terrified.
How easily we can relate to this situation. We are being obedient, a major life storm comes out of nowhere, and it feels like Jesus is on a break. We may panic, withdraw, or take life into our own hands because of our fear. Our faith can be shaken or even dismissed. We look at our circumstances and can only see the storm raging instead of looking to Jesus who is right there in the boat with us.
It can be so easy to give the disciples grief over their lack of faith. They had been following Jesus for a while and witnessed amazing miracles of healing and heard His teaching of hope and promise, and yet still let fear overshadow their faith in trusting what Jesus could do. Don’t we do the same thing? We can have amazing experiences of miraculous provisions, healing, and experiences in the presence of God, but moments later something unexpected comes along that levels us and we cry out in desperation, “Jesus, wake up! Don’t you care about me?”
In Warren W. Wiersbe’s commentary on Luke chapter eight, he says, “Faith is not believing in spite of circumstances; it is obeying in spite of feelings and consequences. The disciples looked around and saw danger, they looked within and saw fear; but they failed to look up by faith and see God”. We are to trust God no matter our circumstances, feelings, or the consequences of following Him. When we let fear become our focus, it prevents us from focusing on the One who is guiding us.
Isaiah 43:2 tells us:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Notice it doesn’t say you won’t walk through waters, rivers, or fire. It says, WHEN you do, He will be with you guiding and protecting you.
No matter how faithful and obedient we may be, we still live in a world plagued by sin. Storms happen, plans fail, people leave, and life can become a mess, but we are promised God’s presence and protection. We are commanded to not fear or be anxious because He is merely a breath away in prayer with the future already figured out. Though things may come out of nowhere for us, they aren’t a surprise for God that will catch Him unprepared or ill equipped. He is always with us giving us exactly what we need for that day. Therefore, we can rest secure in the promise that we do not have to fear the storm.
Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If I am being honest, prayer is an area I feel very insecure about. Prayer is one of the most basic and foundational aspects of our faith yet can feel so vast and at times distant. I’m a talker, so I worry I talk too much during prayer and don’t give God space to speak. To me, it can often feel like a one-sided conversation or a monologue, and then I just walk away. I imagine God is left standing there shaking His head and rolling His eyes at my self-centered, narrow-minded perspective. Am I alone in this?
For years, I felt prayer was an obligation. Something that must be done before I venture too far into my day. I would go through a mental check list of asking for blanketed forgiveness, showing generic gratitude, and praying for people in my life (usually ones that needed to change to make my life easier). But then life got hard, really hard, and complicated. I needed to hear from God desperately. I would cry out and plead but felt like I would receive nothing but silence on the other end.
This year, prayer is an area I want to specifically grow in and deepen in my life. There are so many resources and books about prayer, but I don’t want to educate myself on prayer, I want to fold it into my everyday life. I want prayer to be a normal part of my daily rhythms and not an obligatory event each day. I want to speak and hear from God as one does a friend. I don’t have the answers as to how I will achieve this but there are a few things I have done recently that seem to really help.
As we talked about last week, Scripture is God’s Word to us. Scripture is how we get to know who God is and how He moves and works in our lives and in those around us. As I have deepened my time in Scripture, it has deepened my understanding of prayer. It can be anywhere and anytime.
There isn’t a formula I must use, rather, I can whisper my heart’s desires to God in the moment. It can be thoughts of praise and gratitude, “Thank you God for this beautiful sunrise!” Or thoughts of intercession on someone’s behalf, “Father, be with my friend as she goes to the doctor today. Speak wisdom and fill her with Your peace.” It can even be immediate repentance, “Please forgive my terrible attitude and please help me respond in love today at work.” This mindset echoes the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
When I need to be more intentional about prayer, I have found journaling my prayers works best for me. I literally hand write God a letter in my journal. This helps me organize my thoughts and emotions. I was also taught several years ago that as I journaled my fears, worries, and emotions, to then write Scripture along side the words. It is a tangible way to fight what is going on in your heart with Truth.
The most challenging practice I have tried to implement has been contemplative or centering prayer. This is the practice of clearing your mind and completely fixing your focus on God which allows you to be still before Him and open your heart to hear from Him. This is a huge challenge for me! I am not still and quiet unless I am asleep. My mind continuously has about twelve different things tumbling around including the grocery list, a past interaction with someone, and what I plan to eat for lunch. Getting my mind still is hard but in doing so, it opens the opportunity to hear from God.
Prayer is a gift. Because of Jesus and the righteousness we have through Him, we can go directly to the throne of the King of Kings and lay our supplications at His feet. Jesus modeled this so well while He was on earth with His own prayer life. He often withdrew to be alone with the Father. It was part of His normal routine to be alone with God. We have this gift and privilege allowing us to bring every anxious thought, moment of gratitude, and times of regret and repentance directly to our God. God longs to hear from us but He also longs to speak to us. He is the God of peace, and it is His peace that has the power to change our hearts and perspectives.
Below are some resources that have encouraged and helped me in my prayer life:
Exodus 14:14
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Psalm 37-5-7
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Lamentations 3:22-26
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Prayer: “Father, thank you for Jesus and his sacrifice so that I can come before You completely righteous. Thank you for loving me unconditionally and caring for every detail of my life. Teach me to talk to You as one speaks to a friend. Remind me of your glory and majesty, trusting that Your ways are better than my ways. Even when things are difficult, I can trust that You are moving and working because You are faithful. When I need wisdom from You, remind me that you promise to reveal Yourself to me. Open my heart to Your voice.”
Abigail is a Scripture-soaked writer, speaker and encourager who stands daily in need of God’s grace. Her greatest joys come from strengthening the saints as she helps them embrace God’s sometimes uncomfortable grace. Abigail lives with her husband and two teenaged sons in a little house in the big woods of Wisconsin. She enjoys fast walks, deep talks, chasing sunsets, and challenging the status quo.
Share about a hard season you have walked in your life.
On this day last year, I was in a world of pain. In fact the whole summer of 2022 was a season of great pain. But it was also a place of great peace.
“The results are abnormal. We’ll need to take a closer look. Expect a call tomorrow from scheduling.” I thanked the doctor and hung up.
My mind raced. I imagined the worst. My fingers itched to google the best experts in my region. But I don’t want to commit King Asa’s folly. I wanted to trust God.
Even though—better, because—I didn’t know what was going on. I did know that the pain in my pelvis was growing more intense. Simply sitting or lying down had become excruciating. I knew that the endometriosis that had been the culprit of 20 years of infertility also placed me at increased risk for female cancers.
I won’t lie. Waves of “worst-case scenarios” and “ugly what-if’s” washed over me. But so did this truth.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
That is Psalm 56 verse 3. Notice, the verse doesn’t say, “I’m never afraid because I trust in you.” It says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” David was not in denial. He wrote those words “when the Philistines captured him in Gath.” That colorful episode is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10-15. In enemy hands, David was alone, desperate, and afraid. And he put his trust in God.
I put my trust in you means we choose to trust. We choose to stand on the promises of God. But that doesn’t mean we don’t fear. In his comments on Psalm 56, C.H. Spurgeon observed, “He feared, but that fear did not fill the whole area of his mind, for he adds, ‘I will trust in thee.’ David chose trust when he was afraid.
My summer of pain was a clinic to trust God in my fear. I didn’t want to commit King Asa’s mistake. Asa was a king of Judah who was rescued from an invading army because he relied on God. But in danger again, Asa failed. This time, he relied on a neighbor king for help.
Enter the prophet Hanani who calls King Asa out, “In this you have done foolishly” (2 Chronicles 16:9b, ESV). To rely on anything less than God for ultimate help would be foolish.
Why? Because of God’s running eyes.
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9a, ESV).
God sees. His eyes are running. One Bible teacher called it “aggressive searching.” God is not passive or reluctant. He’s ready, eager, and his eyes are racing—scanning, roaming, seeking—everywhere, looking for people to help. That is why I trust him.
Because there’s not a place on the planet He cannot see. “The whole earth” means He sees me. He sees you. Our merciful God wants to help us, if we fully rely on him. Which is to say, trust him.
By the way, that’s what blameless means. It doesn’t mean “sinless.” It means “whole-hearted.” God is racing to support those who trust in him as a first defense not a last resort. He loves to showcase his power by strengthening the weak. At this very moment, God is seeking opportunities to support those who have a whole-hearted trust in His help.
This is our God, with the running eyes. In my season of pain last summer, this God came to my aid. I didn’t know if the 12-centimeter mass was cancerous, but I knew the peace of God guarding my heart and mind.
What did God show you during this season?
God showed me that real peace is really possible in painful, uncertain seasons. There’s a quote I love in the Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment in which the author, Jeremiah Burroughs, presents and refutes common excuses for being discontent. Reason #10 was, and I paraphrase, “I could be content in this affliction if I knew what to expect, but it’s the uncertainty that’s killing me.” To that Burroughs responds, “Perhaps God sees it is better for you to live in a continual dependence upon him and not to know what your condition shall be tomorrow, than for you to have a more settled condition.” I learned that I can be content and at peace when I do not know what the future holds. I can trust in him and say, “My times are in your hand.”
Last summer, I learned by experience that what the missionary Hudson Taylor said is true: “It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is; it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord—then, the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast.”
In my painful summer, I learned to lean into God’s providence, trusting that even my pelvic mass “came not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.” Since I believe “God is good and God does good” (Psalm 119:68), my painful, uncertain season was an opportunity to trust. So, when the pain became so bad that I had to stop the car and walk on the drive home from my son’s camp, it was a chance to trust. When the pain of that mass made me wince as I shifted in bed at night, it was another chance. When the local OB/GYN declined to treat and referred me to a gynecologic oncologist—cancer doctor— in Milwaukee, it was a chance to trust. When the surgeon looked me in the eye and said, “It may be ovarian cancer,” it was an opportunity to trust.
Whatever trouble comes, let it press you to his breast.
Last summer, I learned that trust is a choice. I learned that trust is not a river in which you drift. I must tether my heart and mind to the truth of God’s Word, as my emotions go up and down. Trust, “is a deliberate act, in defiance of one’s emotional state” on Bible commentator said. At the moment of fear, I must trust. “When I am afraid I will trust.” Again and again and again, I must trust.
How did God provide protective care during this season?
God’s protective care was felt in my doctors’ hands. From the on-call PA in urgent care on July 5th, to her referral, to her referral to the OB/GYN whose schedule opened up and allowed me to see her three days later, rather than three weeks later, to her referral to the gyno-oncologist surgeon who “just so happened” to be a regional expert in endometriosis and endometriomas, which is what my ovarian mass turned out to be.
Then there was his “above and beyond” lavish and tender care–the single overnight in the quiet room on a quiet floor with a spectacular view, to my college friend who happened to be a nurse and came up to visit me in the morning, to the pineapple bouquet that greeted me at home the next day. Two months later, I felt God’s tender care through my sister Danielle, who “just so happened” to be a wound care nurse who cared for me when one of my five incisions would not heal.
But that whole season, I felt God’s protective care again and again in the perfect peace he gave me as I trusted in him. Even before I heard the words, “The mass was benign.”
What scripture(s) encouraged you during this season? (All are ESV.)
2 Chronicles 16:9a:
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”
Psalm 56:3:
“When I am afraid I will trust in you.”
Psalms 31:14-15a:
“But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand…”
Isaiah 26:3:
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Philippians 4:6-7:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What encouragement do you have for others that may be walking through this season?
Trust God. I mean actively do it. Throw your worries on him. Cast your cares on him. Commit your anxiety to him. Actively do it. When you are afraid, put your trust in him.
Pick one of those verses to memorize and read and repeat it whenever the fear’s waves surge. I can’t tell you how many mornings and painful nighttime turnings I would ride the wave and say, “I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand.”
Peace came. It really came. And if peace doesn’t come. Trust and pray again. And if peace doesn’t stay, trust and pray again and again and again.
Don’t wait for the “feeling” of trust to come upon you. Look your trouble straight on, full in the face and trust God. I imagined the worst—that the mass was a lethal ovarian cancer that would soon separate me from this earthly life and the people I love. I went there and felt that and then leaned into providence. By grace, I trusted my Father’s loving hand. Because, when it comes down to it, as Elisabeth Elliot knew, “there are really only two choices. You either trust God, or you don’t trust God.”
Are there any books or resources that were helpful during this season?
The Bible, especially Psalms: My friend and I led a women’s Bible study during this painful season on the Psalms of Trust. It’s available as a free download at AbigailWallace.com.
Meek Not Weak: A 12-Week Guide to the Gentle Strength of Meekness by Abigail Wallace ( I beg your pardon for the self-promotion, but I was in the final edits of my book last summer and I was pushed to live out meekness and lean into God’s providence in ways I never imagined!)
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
A couple of months ago I quit my job. Wait, let me rephrase, I quit my career. It was the most reckless thing I have ever done. The timing was terrible. I had no idea what job or career was next, no prospects for income, and our marriage was hanging on by a mere thread. After God asked me for a blank canvas eighteen months earlier, this was the final step in full surrender; giving up my fifteen year career in banking.
