Your Storm Is Proof You Obeyed

We like to think a smooth road means we're doing right, and a hard one means we've messed up somewhere.

Look at John 6. Jesus had just fed five thousand men, not counting women and children, with one boy's lunch. The crowd was ready to crown Him king right there on the mountain. But that wasn't why He came. He withdrew Himself, alone, and He sent His disciples out onto the sea — not because they wandered off on their own, but because He told them to go. Mark records that the Lord constrained them to get into that ship.

And what happened? "The sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew" (John 6:18). Darkness. Wind. Waves. Hours of rowing against a current that kept pushing them back. Those men weren't out there because they'd sinned. They were out there because they obeyed.

That'll preach right into your Monday morning. You lost the job after you finally started giving faithfully. Your health scare came right after you started walking with the Lord in a way you never had before. Your family relationship got harder right when you started standing on conviction instead of compromise.

Don't you dare read that as God being displeased with you. Sometimes the storm isn't discipline. It's just what obedience costs before anybody sees the payoff. Row anyway. He's not in a hurry, but He is coming.

Still rowing? Hear the whole message this post came from — listen now:

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/