verses for a storm

Seven years ago today James officially started his new position at First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Mississippi. The kids and I we’re staying back in Nashville so they could finish the school year, and on this May 1st Sunday morning, the skies opened up and dropped down, eventually causing flooding in our home town. 

I will always remember this particular set of days as the “week of the flood.”  It was such an uncertain certain time, if that makes any sense, both personally and city wide. The flood of fear & destruction all around was overarched by the flood of God’s faithfulness and love. The Walkers watched The Lord do on a grander scale in the Nashville area just what had happened in our own family’s life as He allowed the storms to keep coming and the flood waters to rise, all while continuing to carry and care for those who were calling out to Him for help. 

What a Mighty God we serve!(*1) How grateful I am that His plans are so much higher than anything I can think of! (*2) God is always watching over His people (*3), and is actually walking WITH us in the midst of the storm (*4). We are NEVER alone (*4). Blessed be His name (*5)! 

Best part: As Ecclesiastes 3:11 promises, “…God makes everything beautiful in His time.” Seven years after the flood in Nashville, you would never know that the city had been hit (unless you happen to smell a few musty basements! Haha). It has vibrantly recovered. And so have we. 

Seven years here in Cleveland, MS. It seems like God used a storm and flood of His own choosing to loosen our grip on the life we thought we would always be living so He could wash us down the MS river and settle us in this wonderful MS Delta town. 

God’s ways are higher than ours. Always. All ways.    (PS: feel free to grab and print the pic below if you need a reminder of this truth for yourself!)

May 1st begins the week of the flood in my mind and heart, the beginning of the end of a storm God used to get us where He wanted us to be… for our good and His glory. 

A storm which caused us, who have walked with Him for so long, to question with affectionate awe, “Who is this that even the winds and water obey Him?” (Mt 8:27) And we’ve just begun to learn that He is King Jesus.

Through the storms God has allowed us to go through, we know Him a million times deeper than we did a decade ago.  And through those storms on the horizon, I expect to know Him in even more intimate ways after passing through.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.

He hushed the storm to a gentle whisper,
So that the waves of the sea were still.

Then they were glad because of the calm,
And He guided them to their desired haven (harbor).

Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
And for His wonderful acts to the children of men!

Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people,
And praise Him at the seat of the elders.

Psalm 107:28-32 (AMP) 

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his compassion and love and kindness endure forever!  Psalm 107:1

He is our trustworthy Savior. Is He asking you to follow Him through a storm today?