Harvey. Wildfires. Irma. When will it end?

I watched with disbelief the catastrophic flooding in Houston, my former home for 23 years. Just seven years ago Nashville was hit with historic flooding in downtown and the surrounding areas.

Lately, it seems the hits are coming faster and harder.

It’s not just natural disasters but in addition our personal disasters. The cancer diagnosis. The divorce. The joblessness. The financial hit. The addiction. The death of a loved one.

No matter how hard we try to scratch and claw our way out of the current crisis, the collateral damages linger.

My morning quiet time this week led me to Psalm 46 as I pondered the past few weeks.  This chapter is marked up in my Bible from September 11, 2001 when fear struck the hearts of all Americans.

This Psalm proved comforting then and soothing again this week. It holds truths we need to remind ourselves of when the hits are pointed in our direction.

God is our refuge. “Though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,” God can still be our refuge. Just as we run to our basements or storm shelters, we can run to Him. We can hide under the shelter of His loving arms through prayer, in worship, in reading His word, and in the embrace of another believer.

God is our strength. The Psalmist describes catastrophic events where the mountains move into the sea, waters roar and foam, and mountains tremble. But God says He will be our strength even when the chaos encircles us. When we lean into Him and admit we are powerless, He will impart His power to us during the crisis.

God is a very present help. He is not just present but a very present help in our storms. The living God can speak peace to the most shaken of souls in the midst of disaster and its aftermath. When we cry out to Him He will answer. When we trust Him, He will give us what we need at that moment.

God is in our midst. Although it doesn’t look like it. Although the bank account is still withdrawn, the loved one is still not there, or there are no job prospects on the horizon, God is in our midst. He will walk with us through the storms and give us the help we need for that day and all the following days.

And finally, a verse many of you are familiar with–but let’s not get so familiar with it that we don’t rest in its truth and let it sink into our very being:

Be still and know that I am God (v. 10).

Though the flood waters rise, though all your earthly belongings are heaped in a pile on the front lawn, though the cancer treatments continue, though the bank account is in the red, and another storm is on the way:

Be still and know that I am God.

Peace. Merciful, overflowing, abundance peace.

What storm are you dealing with today?