Rain, sleet, snow...HELL

It was so peaceful.  The air was crisp but not too cold.  The night sky was black but twinkled as the snowflakes began falling through the sky. They came down so fast and heavily that you could actually hear the flakes fall.  Most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen.  Watching that snowfall was like what I would imagine it to be like to have peace covering the earth.  This is the kind of snow day that you want.  At home getting to enjoy the light, fluffy snow, making snowmen and having snow ball fights with your family. It's beautiful and all is well!

Isn't it amazing that the same sort of precipitation that can create peace and bliss can also create chaos and confusion?  That peaceful snow laying on the ground this week was a sheet of ice the weeks before. What is causing people to laugh and make snow angels now was earlier causing people to wreck and abandon their cars because they had no traction and no way to move.  Roads blocked.  Chaos abounding.

The same winter storm that came through dropping snow on us brought rain, sleet, snow and hail to other parts of the state and neighboring states.  That freezing rain became an ice storm that shut down Atlanta and parts of the east coast. And just when you thought it couldnt get worse, it did. They had major power outages and the cities were brought to a standstill.  North Carolina got slammed and people were out in the roads just like we were a few weeks ago.

It's just like life, isn't it?  Just as your cruising along in your "I got this thing under control" attitude and thinking my world couldn't get any better, the rug is pulled out from under you.  You've got the peaceful snowflakes falling all around you, but are you ready for the ice storms?  Are you ready for power outages? How prepared are you to withstand the rain, the snow, the sleet....the Hell?

It's easy to coast along with joy, peace, patience, kindness...all the fruits of the spirit that we should walk in daily when things are going good.  But what about when all hell breaks loose?  Can you weather the storm and maintain that blanket of peace, joy and happiness?  Or are you that patch of remnant snow found on the side of the road that is misshapen and dirty, slowly falling apart and an eyesore to passersby?  How quickly do we lose our peace when life throws us a winter storm? How quickly do those fruits melt away?

I have come to realize that we need to be in a constant state of preparation. We know the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but we may not know when or where. You may not have enough time to be warned and able to go get "supplies" to survive the storm.  You've got to be stockpiling now!

Your survival kit to weather the storm:
1.  Pray. Pray without ceasing.  Your circumstances may not change, but your attitude will!

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. 
1 Thess. 5:16-18

2. Worship. Let worship help change your perspective. As our Pastor always says, don't tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is.

Let every living, breathing creature praise God!  Psalm 150

3. The Word.  Be in it so much that when circumstances turn bad, you know who to turn to and you know what to speak.  You have to be in it for you to become it!  

But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. 
Psalm 1:2

4. A support structure. You need to have a Godly inner circle that can hold you accountable and help you maneuver through the storms when you are stranded. 

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Ecc. 4:9-10

Seems simple doesn't it?  Only 4 things in your survival kit that you need to equip you to withstand any storm that sweeps your way.  I consider these 4 things to be vital in being able to weather a storm!  Do you have other things that should be added to the kit?  Check your supplies now, so that you are ready when the storm hits.  Don't wait...and continue to stockpile the supplies so that you have a surplus to use when the winter storm warning is called! 

Preparedness results in peace.  

 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16.33