On September 20, 1991, the seventy foot “Andrea Gail” set sail from Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts, and headed north to the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic. On October 28, after a somewhat lackluster sword fishing expedition, Captain Billy Tyne and his crew were heading home when he gave this message to nearby fishing boats about an approaching storm – “She’s comin’ on boys, and she’s comin’ on strong.” No one heard from the “Andrea Gail” ever again. Within hours of that message, the “Andrea Gail” was lost at sea along with her crew of six. Days later search and rescue teams found some floating wreckage, but the boat and its crew members have never been found.

The National Weather Service forecaster who tracked the deadly storm said that three weather systems, three pieces of energy, came together to create this phenomenon, thus this storm has become known as the “Perfect Storm.”

Just like the “Andrea Gail,” we sometimes find ourselves in the midst of a storm. Storms that rock our lives and seem to threaten the very foundation we stand upon. Storms that cause us to become discouraged and ready to give up. Sometimes the storm is caused by only one piece of energy, other times, three pieces of energy, thereby creating a massive “perfect storm.”

So how can you weather these storms of life? Begin by putting your trust in Jesus and knowing that He is your anchor. Hebrews 6:19 tells us that Jesus is “an anchor for our soul, firm and secure.” And in Isaiah 25:4 we read these assuring words – “You have been refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”

Jesus promises to be right there with you, every step of the way. Not only is Jesus a licensed boat captain, He is also a certified lifeguard. He is qualified to navigate your boat through the storms and He is qualified to rescue you from the raging ocean waters should you fall off the boat during the storm. Jesus reaches out His hand to you and says “grab hold.”

So, today, whether the storm you face is the Perfect Storm or simply a quick moving thunderstorm, take shelter in Jesus. Don’t lose hope. Instead, cling to Jesus, and trust completely that unlike the captain and crew of that fishing vessel who have never been found, God never loses sight of you and He promises to be your anchor and your shelter in the storm.

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Right now, as you read this post, there is one thing you are doing that you probably just take for granted. Assuming you have no medical condition that limits this necessary function, it just happens without you even thinking about it. You guessed it, breathing.

Technically speaking, breathing is called is external respiration, or in other words, the exchange of gases. In simple terms, respiration occurs by breathing. We inhale to deliver oxygen to our lungs, and we exhale to send carbon dioxide out of our bodies. The respiration rate for an average adult at rest is 12 to 20 breaths per minute. When your circulatory system transports these gases to and from your cells, cellular respiration occurs. Over-breathing is called hyperventilation and under-breathing, hypoventilation, both of which cause distress to your body.    

Other than sustaining life, breathing has other important functions as well. For example, speech and speaking are directly related to breathing. A normal speech pattern is first inhalation to fill your lungs with air then speak during exhalation. If you know me then you know I have a speech impediment. Unlike many speech impediments, mine is not a mechanical defect. Instead, somewhere during my developmental stage I began trying to speak while inhaling. Go ahead, try it, how does that work for you? And to compensate, throughout the years, I formed improper habits, none of which make for “normal” or easy-flowing speech.

Just as breathing on a human level is necessary for physical life, spiritual breathing is necessary in order to interact with the Holy Spirit. To breathe physically is to take in air containing oxygen to facilitate energy production. To breathe spiritually is to interact with (“breathe”) the Holy Spirit, and thereby, living by (producing “energy”) the Spirit.

The most common reference to “God’s Spirit” and “Holy Spirit” in Scripture comes from the Hebrew word “ruach” and the Greek word “pneuma.” The biblical language uses these words in three ways: spirit, wind, breath. The Old Testament uses “ruach” as a name of God, for example Ruach Elohim as the Spirit of God, Ruach Adonia as Spirit of the Lord. Job 33:4 says this: The Spirit of God (Ruach-El) has made me, the breath of the Almighty gives me life. The New Testament uses “pneuma” close to 380 times when referring to the Holy Spirit. And today we have words like pneumonia (infection in the lung’s air sacs) or pneumatic air cylinder (operated by air/gas under pressure). In theology, pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit.  

The breath in a person is the most obvious sign they are alive. Without the air we breathe, we are dead.

So, I ask – Are you spiritually alive, breathing in the presence of God, filling your lungs with the His Spirit? Why not ask the Spirit of God to give you life today, then ask again tomorrow, the next day, and every day after that. Let me end with these lyrics from the song “Breathe,” written by Marie Barnett – “This is the air I breathe, this is the air I breathe, your holy presence, living in me.”

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Several years ago, when we lived in North Carolina, we removed some unsightly shrubbery in our front yard. That left a large bare spot in which we wanted to plant grass seed. But before we planted grass seed, we needed to cultivate and prepare the soil to make the ground ready, thus not inhibiting the new grass from growing. If we had simply spread grass seed on hard dirt, it would not likely grown. We worked the soil to break it up and also to help us find rocks, twigs, weeds, and possibly roots still left behind after digging up the shrubs. After making the ground ready we then planted grass seed, but even with proper conditions it was slow to germinate and grow. It did eventually fill in nicely,

The same can be said of our daily walk with Jesus. We need to cultivate a proper lifestyle that will then be conducive to growing closer to Jesus. Peter, in outlining how to grow in spiritual maturity, says this –

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins” (2 Peter 1:3-9).

As a side note, in the opening verse of both 1 and 2 Peter, the author identifies himself as Peter (Simon Peter in 2 Peter). However, based upon language, dating, structure, and style, there is reason to believe that Peter was not the author of either epistle, possibly both written by different authors pseudonymously. Dictating letters was not uncommon, and in the closing verses of 1 Peter, we see that whoever wrote this epistle had help from a man named Silas (5:12).

Are you doing the necessary things to produce the proper conditions for Jesus to grow in you? Are you spending time with Jesus every day? Are you reading and meditating upon Scripture? Do you listen for the voice of God? Do you seek His guidance and wisdom? Do you pray regularly (conversation with God, not simply “asking” for things)? Those are just some of the questions you should be asking yourself.

So, no matter how closely you walk with Jesus today, it should be your desire to walk even closer – to have properly cultivated and ever-improving soil so that Jesus’ presence can grow in you. Ask Him today to help you work your soil so that His presence fills your entire being, and watch how those bare spots begin to fill in.  

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Think back to your childhood. One evening you and a friend were lying out in your backyard in the damp green grass looking up at the starlit night and dreaming about the lives that were ahead of you. You had visions for a wonderful life, filled with health, happiness, and prosperity. You had this idyllic view of your future, one that was extremely happy, peaceful, and charming. There was no place in those dreams for cancer, unemployment, divorce, addiction, death of a spouse or child, stress of dealing with aging parents, or any of the other challenges that we all have in life. Every one of your dreams would come true, and you would live happily ever after. You remember those childhood dreams, right?

Somewhere along your journey you invited Jesus into your life and with that you thought that the difficulties and failures of your past would be a thing of the past. You listened to others who shared their story of how Jesus made their life so much better. Somewhere along the way you got the false impression that anchoring yourself to Jesus would mean smooth sailing, no more rough seas or gusty winds. NOTE: If you haven’t yet invited Jesus into your life, you can do so by admitting that you are a sinner (Psalm 32:5), asking Him for forgiveness (1 John 1:9), and then opening the door of your heart to Him (Revelation 3:19-20).

But today you look at your life and it just seems to be one new challenge piled upon top of another, and you find yourself becoming disillusioned, discouraged, frustrated, maybe even hopeless. At every turn you seem to face another detour. The dreams you had for life, well, you have stopped dreaming and right now you simply just want to hang on and ride out the current wave without taking on more water. You find yourself questioning your faith and asking, “Why me, Jesus? What did I do to deserve this?”

Jesus Himself tells us that life is full of trials and tribulations. In John 16:33 He says that “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 we read these hopeful words – “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  

Martin Luther, who began the Protestant Reformation, is reported to have said these words on his deathbed – “These pains and troubles here are like the type which printers set; as they look now, we have to read them backwards and they seem to have no meaning or sense to them. But up yonder, when the Lord prints us off in the life to come, we will find they make brave reading.”      

So regardless of what you feel like, or what your life looks like, God is still faithful and caring for you. He is in control and is working out your life in a way that, looking back, will all make sense one day. It will make brace reading!

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What would you ask for if you had but only one wish? It is believed that the tradition of candles on a cake can be traced back to the Greeks, who adorned cakes to honor the goddess Artemis. It is thought that candles represented light from the moon, a symbol associated with Artemis. And it was believed that smoke carried prayers to the heavens, thus the tradition of making a wish before blowing out the candles might be traced back that belief. History has recorded that in 1746 Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf celebrated his birthday with a cake that had the number of candles equal to his age.

Regardless of whether or not you blow out birthday cake candles, for most of us, if we only had one wish, we would ask for some form of health and wealth. You might use different words, but boil it down, and we all desire health and wealth, two things that often allude us.

As King Solomon was establishing his rule over the kingdom, he was granted “one wish” by God. In 2 Chronicles 1:7 we read – “That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’”

It would seem that God had just given King Solomon a free pass to ask for anything he wanted. Solomon was wealthier than every other king (1 Kings 10:23), but would he desire more wealth? We are also told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), but maybe he still wanted more women? Isn’t it true that you sometimes have enough but deep down you desire more? Maybe in addition to all his wealth and all his women, Solomon desired to be the strongest man alive or to live many more years. It appeared that Solomon could ask for any or all of those and God would grant his wish. 

But instead of asking for more of worldly things, Solomon desired only wisdom. Here is what we find in vv.8-10 – “Solomon answered God, ‘You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?’”

It took great humility to simply ask for wisdom. And because Solomon only desired wisdom, he got so much more. Here is what we read in vv.11-12 –  ^“God said to Solomon, ‘Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.’”

What’s the takeaway? If we desire the right thing, having the heart and mind of God, seeking after the things of God, we get that and so much more! Jesus puts it this way. In Matthew 6, He is teaching on seeking “God-provisions” first, above all else, and here is what we read – “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you (v.33, HCSB).”

So, I ask you, what is your one desire, your one wish?

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Imagine for a minute that you are an Olympic athlete and you have just won your first gold medal. Years and years of training and sacrifice have finally paid off. Congratulations! But, upon further review, you really just won yourself a silver medal with gold plating. Both gold and silver medals awarded to the first and second place finishers at the Olympic Games are made of 92.5% silver, with the gold medal being plated with at least 6 grams of gold, thus making the gold medal less than 2% gold. (The last gold medals actually made of gold were awarded at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.)  So then, what about the third-place bronze medal? Is it really bronze? You be the judge – bronze is an alloy, meaning it is made by melting copper and tin together.

Maybe you are wondering, why gold, silver, and bronze? The three metals used in Olympic medals are in the same column of the periodic table. This means they share many of the same characteristics with each other. The most important property these metals share is that they can be found naturally in their elemental native (pure) form. Most other metals are only found in their mineral form, comprised of several elements. Copper (Cu) is at the top of the column, thus the least rare, so it is used for third place. Silver (Ag) is one level down, rarer than copper, so it represents second place. And gold (Au) is found one level below silver in the column, thus the rarest of the three, so naturally, first place.

We can agree that gold – whether coins, some sort of medal awarded, or a wedding ring – is of great value. The Bible tells us that maintaining our faith in the face of difficulties and trials is worth far more than gold. In the first few verses of 1 Peter (1:3-9) we are told God’s plan of redemption and restoration meets our every need, and this blessing is so great that we can pass through times of trouble by holding onto a faith in a living Jesus that we have not yet seen.

Today I want to highlight vv. 6-7 – “Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed” (GNT).

The purest form of gold is 24-karat and it comes through refining by fire. Gold ore is put to heat so the impurities, known as dross, can be burned away. Like gold, God refines us the same way. The trials we all face from time to time, some that truly shake us to our very core, help to sift out that which is pure and genuine in our faith from that which is impure.

Right now, ask God for a faith that is of greater value that gold.  

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