There is a storm heading across Ireland as I write this, the kind of storm that makes you shudder a little inside if you let your imagination run too wild. The skies are all shades of grey, and the wind is blowing sideways and taking everything with it. Trees are bending, grass is rippling and it feels like ice is in the air.
We knew the storm was coming, but when I woke up this morning the skies were blue with streaks of pink. The air was warm and honestly, I just couldn’t see where Storm Dudley was.
Like all of us, in preparation for the day I have to choose what I want to wear. Normally it would be jeans and layers of warm shirts, but instead I decided to prepare for the upcoming storm. I dressed in quick-dry clothing, leggings and boots. I was not dressing for what I saw, but what I expected was coming.
Storm Dudley hit Kilkenny about an hour ago. It is fierce, but not as fierce as elsewhere in Ireland and I am grateful. I am even more grateful however that I was prepared for being wet, and rained on and windswept. When I dropped the kids at school, a teacher remarked about how the skies had just been clear a minute before and she hadn’t expected the storm to come in so fierce.
But why, we had been promised it?
A thought crossed my mind, which I’d like to share with you.
The bible is full of promises, exciting promises from God that we can stand on and cling to. But when we don’t see any representation of those promises in our lives or we don’t know about them, we don’t expect them. We don’t prepare for them.
Just like the calm before the storm today, I prepared for it by dressing for what I knew was coming even though I couldn’t see it.
We need to know what God has promised us.
We need to expect Him more than ever.
And with that, we need to prepare for those promises.
What farmer plants a field without preparing the land in expectation of a crop? He believes for it, he can see the fulfillment of it. And so he prepares the land.
Just because you cannot see it, does not mean you cannot prepare for it.
Choose a promise and believe it. Recite it over and over, write it on the walls and across the mirror you stare in. Expect Him to come through. Not in your timing, but His. Perhaps it’ll come slowly, or maybe you’ll see it come in like a rushing wind.
Find a promise.
Prepare for it.
Believe it.
Expect God.
God is always with me (Joshua 1:9)
God designed me for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10)
God gives me power for my life (2 Timothy 1:7)
God will strengthen and help me (Isaiah 41:10)
God promises you an abundant life (John 10:10)
God can be trusted (Hebrews 10:23)
God has a plan for my life (Jeremiah 29:11)