“O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.” Psalm 89:8-9 KJV Anna and I spent a weekend at the ocean. On the first day we were there a strong spring storm came in that even the locals were commenting on. The waves crashed up on the rocks with a ferocity that almost felt like they themselves were angry. We still managed to spend some time on the beach all bundled up to watch this amazing force of nature. The noise of the waves and the wind made it difficult to talk, but we both were thinking about the awesome power of our God. When you think of the magnitude of it, one can feel so weak and small compared to the mighty Pacific Ocean.
The sand beneath our feet as we walked is innumerable, yet our Heavenly Father knows it all and even the number of hairs on our heads. I thought about how relentless the waves are. They come one after another without stopping and have done so every day since He divided the earth from the sea. As I walked along, I remembered a Norwegian word I had learned at a recent job I was on. The school where I was working were called the Vikings. They had painted the Norwegian word “Nadelose” on their gym floor. In English it means relentless, but another translation of it means unmerciful. God is indeed relentless. Like those waves that continually come. He pursues his creation and never gives up on us.
The other thing we know about him is that he is the opposite of unmerciful. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that his mercies are new every day. He rules those raging seas and he can cause them to still. He does the same to our hearts. He reassures us of the deep, deep love he has for us through his Son Jesus Christ. The knowledge of this will quell the storms that rage in our hearts.
The next day we went to the beach, it was much more calm. The sun was out and the waves were beginning to tame. Those waves were still relentless, but in a manner that spoke to the fact that God had stilled them. We to have stormy times in our lives. Trials and temptation are never very far from us. How good it would be if we can recognize God’s hand through it all and how he always is there coming to us even when we don’t have the strength to go to him. What an encouragement we can then have knowing that we are headed, as the song goes, to a land that is fairer than day. In that sweet by and by we can meet on that beautiful shore where our Father waits and has prepared us a dwelling place. Safe from the storms of this life where we can sit at his feet and sing songs of praise for all eternity.
Let us thank and praise him for his unspeakable mercies toward us in Christ! Hans Lampinen
Submitted by Pastor Stan
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