STORMS THAT CORRECT Read Hebrews 12:05-06
This passage warns us that storms will come in the form of hardship, a crisis or even a tragedy and that there will be occasions when we can anticipate them or when they will arrive unexpectedly. Some storms are due to our actions. We do something wrong and it catches up with us and we face the consequences. An example from the Old Testament could be Jonah. God called him, a Jew, to take a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh who were enemies of Israel. Jonah reasoned that if he preached to the Ninevites they would probably repent and God would spare them. On the other hand if he didn’t preach to them, they wouldn’t repent and God would destroy them. His thinking was that that would be one less enemy Israel would have to worry about. So Jonah boarded a ship traveling in the opposite direction to get away from doing what God wanted him to do.
A terrible storm arose and it was determined that the storm was a result of Jonah’s disobedience. Jonah eventually did what God asked him to do.
One could call this a CORRECTING STORM. Correcting storms are reminders that God loves us, If God didn’t love Jonah He wouldn’t have sent the storm. He got Jonah’s attention. If we find ourselves in a correcting storm, know then that it is because God loves us.

STORMS THAT PERFECT Read James 01:02-04
Some storms in our lives are not the result of our disobedience to the Lord. They are the result of our obedience to Him. An example from the Old Testament could be Job. What was Job doing wrong when all these troubles happened? Nothing! The Lord spoke to him in the presence of angels and Satan, saying, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless – a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil” (Job 01:08)/ Job went through a PEFECTING STORM. The Lord allowed the storm to bring about change in Job’s life.
James reminds us that the end result of a perfecting storm is to make us more like Christ. While there are some bad things that God turns into good things, there are also some bad things that are always bad. We need to remember Romans 08:28-29 “For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son”. The Lord’s intention is not to make us happy, but to make us more like Jesus.

STORMS THAT PROTECT Read Matthew 14:22
Sometimes a storm will come into our lives that is protecting us from something worse. These storms often don’t make sense and they are hard for us to understand. This is the type of PROTECTIVE STORM that the disciples faced when Jesus made them get into a boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Trouble was brewing in the life and ministry of Jesus. He had just fed the multitude and in (John 06:15) we read that “Jesus knowing that they (the people) intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself”. Jesus saw that the people wanted to use Him for their own selfish purposes so in order to protect the disciples from one storm on land, which could affect their relationship with Him, He sent the disciples to face a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
There are moments in our lives when the Lord will allow a PROTECTING STORM into our lives to not only protect us from something bad, but also to show us His power during the storm. Jesus knew a storm was coming when he sent His disciples away – but He met them in the storm. Jesus knows the storms we will face. The assurance is that as He met His disciples in their storm, so He will meet us in our storms.

Taken from “Faith for Daily Living”