Roping Religion: Weather - and learn from - the storms

Many of the ideas and scriptures for this article are from the devotional “God Wants You To Win!” by world champion calf roper Jeff Copenhaver.

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

If you’ve been a believer for a while you have probably experienced some storms in your life. Sometimes the storms are financial, relational, interpersonal, work related, physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. The enemy of our souls would love to rob us of our peace, our resources, and our health. Our enemies hope that the storms in our lives will destroy us but God can use the storms and turn them into blessings for us and those we know.

Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and through several bad circumstances Joseph wound up in prison. Years later when he received justice he let his brothers know that what they meant for evil God used for good.

A lot of us who have been wronged might say that we want justice and we want it now. We probably should say what God says when He instructs us that vengeance is His. God actually commands us to pray for our enemies. We can only do that legitimately through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our flesh or our carnal nature wants revenge on our enemies or those who have hurt those we love. As we learn how to trust God with our lives we can say like Job, “Though He slay me yet will I trust Him.”

When you build your life on the rock of Jesus you will find that you will be able to survive the storms of life. There will be a cost to pay. You will learn that God’s power shows up best in weak people. You will learn to trust and obey. You will learn that obedience is better than sacrifice. Hopefully you will learn that God’s arm is not too short for your current storm. You will learn the peace of God right in the middle of the storms of life.

If you live long enough you will probably experience pain, loss, suffering, disappointment and betrayal. No servant is above his master. Jesus experienced trials of His faith, temptations, family difficulties, oppression by religious people, attacks on His character, betrayal, physical abuse, torture, thirst, hunger, separation from His Father, crucifixion and death on a cross.

Scripture tells us that the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. When He really needed support, His disciples fled. Proverbs tells us that there is a friend Who sticks closer than a brother. That Friend is Jesus. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Perhaps this week we could work on being a friend like Jesus. We could consider others as better than ourselves while still maintaining healthy boundaries. We could go the extra mile for someone. Not only could we build our own houses on the rock of Jesus but we could help disciple others so that their foundation would be in Christ as well.

This kind of friendship will mean laying down our lives for others the way a Biblical husband lays down his life for his wife and children. This type of friendship will call on us to say “Yes” to God no matter what He asks of us. Our lives are not our own. We have been bought at a price. That price was Jesus’ death on the cross. Let’s trust Him to bring us safely through each storm.

May God bless you big.

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This is the 17th in a series of columns by Kevin Barsotti, pastor of Ark Church in Havre.