My God Is a Storm

My husband was reading to our oldest son last week, and I was doing this-and-that nearby, eavesdropping. The book was about a young boy and the ewe he hand-raised from its birth. The chapter I listened in on the other day tells the story of the day the ewe (“Biddy”) walked into the house while the family was at the table. She came in bleeding and bitten, to let them know that wolves were after the flock:

They never found how Biddy got through or over or around the miles of fencing that were meant to keep the pastures safe, but they found why. In a ravine, a clustered frightened group of sheep were gathered, still trembling as they had when they had raced for their lives across the open land. Their wild eyes could not see the three [shepherds] approaching them as friends but as something more to fear. At sight of Benj and Andrew and Peter an anguished sound came from the flock - high and plaintive from the mothers, sharp and questioning from the lambs...

With long strides Benj moved in among the flock, talking to them, reaching out his hands on either side to comfort and allay. Biddy had joined the flock, her dark brown fleece instantly discernible among the tawny coats. Somewhere she had found her lamb and was whickering over it, proud and happy. Her quietness and Benj's slow tones spread assurance to the flock and gradually they became calm.
 
Peter stayed with the sheep while Andrew and Benj went off across the pastureland and over the rounded nobs of hills searching for traces of the invader…
 
When dusk began to settle down, Andrew and Peter started home. Benj was left sitting on a stone, the gun across his knees, Biddy and her lamb beside him so the flock would not stray. Peter remembered him sitting there - as silent as a tree, as grim as a storm-laden east wind.  (excerpted from Mountain Born, by Elizabeth Yates)




I listened to my husband reading and I could see God. I could see God's heart that caused Him to leap to our rescue.


I could hear God’s voice that calms the frightened mothers and babies (and everyone else).
I could look back in my life and see God’s form moving in our midst, bringing us comfort and peace. And I saw that God sits, a storm-front of strength and protection over His loved ones.  




 

 

 

 

 

God is a storm to our enemy - a grim, storm-laden east wind to the enemy that would devour our lives. Do you feel surrounded, chased down or backed into a corner?

There is a God who will - and already has - moved heaven and earth* to come to your rescue.



My God is a storm to my enemy and a peace to me. I love Him for it. 



Ambushed at story time with gratitude to the God-Who-Storms-On-My-Behalf,

Kimberly



   

    

 

I love You fervently anddevotedly, O Lord, my Strength.

The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower.

I will call upon the Lord, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

The cords or bands of death surrounded me, and the streams of ungodliness and the torrents of ruin terrified me.

The cords of Sheol (the place of the dead) surrounded me; the snares of death confronted and came upon me.

In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears.

Then the earth quaked and rocked, the foundations also of the mountains trembled; they moved and were shaken because He was indignant and angry.

There went up smoke from His nostrils; and lightning out of His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.

*He bowed the heavens also and came down; and thick darkness was under His feet.

And He rode upon a cherub [a storm] and flew [swiftly]; yes, He sped on with the wings of the wind.

He made darkness His secret hiding place; as His pavilion (His canopy) round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Out of the brightness before Him there broke forth through His thick clouds hailstones and coals of fire.

The Lord also thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, amid hailstones and coals of fire.

And He sent out His arrows and scattered them; and He flashed forth lightnings and put them to rout.

Then the beds of the sea appeared and the foundations of the world were laid bare at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

He reached from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated andabhorred me, for they were too strong for me.

They confronted and came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay and support.

He brought me forth also into a large place; He was delivering me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me.

 

Psalm 18:1-19, Amplified Bible (AMP)