In a storm like a tornado or hurricane one of the biggest priorities is to find shelter. It is key to getting through the storm not only unharmed, but possibly even alive. Sometimes in the midst of such a great storm, especially if someone has never been through a tornado or hurricane before a persons instinct might tell them to RUN! Get away as far as you can from what is happening. Especially with a tornado this can be extremely dangerous, as the tornado is unpredictable.

When we face trials in our lives that are unpredictable, and unexpected, we may suddenly not know what to do. We may decide we want to run rather then face what is happening. The problem with that tactic is that the trial is still happening, the reality of the situation is still at hand.  When we run we only have our back to the storm, and we are become weaker by running off alone.  What we need to be doing instead is seeking a shelter where we can live through the storm unharmed. Yes the trial we are living may be harming us in a physical way, but what we want to avoid is having the trial harm us in an emotional and spiritual way that we will not recover from.

There is a shelter we can seek that will accomplish this for us. Unlike a tornado, where a shelter is a physical place, the shelter from the trials we face in life is not a physical location. It is found in our relationship with God. He is our shelter and peace in storm (Ps. 55:8 ). But even more then that, when we seek Him we will find that shelter (Prov. 8:17 ), that place where we can weather the storm . By running from Him in the storm we only miss the very thing we are looking for, a peace in the middle of the storm. We need to be seeking God and looking at what He is doing in the storm. The shelter and peace we need is in God. He promises us peace (Ps. 85:8 ),  and we know God keeps His promises!

We need to resist the urge to run, resist the urge to fight the trial indepently. Peace is available if we seek the shelter that is available in God, and we do so by spending time in His word, and in prayer.  When we go to God in the trial He is capable of giving us a peace that is beyond that which we are going to find by any other means.

We are in the midst of a mighty battle, a trial that seems to grind on us, where do we run for strength?  The Lord promises a to be our strong tower, to be our strength when we are weak.  More then once in scripture is the Lord referred to as a Strong Tower (Ps 63:1 , Pr 18:10 ).  A strong tower is a place of refuge, a place where one can retreat to when the battle is rough and the strength has run out to fight any longer.  A strong tower is a place where the battle no longer seems on the doorstep because the walls are strong and resilient to the fight.

How do we know God is our strong tower?  His word tell us so, and He proves Himself faithful to His promises.  His history is evident to us in scripture, and we need only spend time there to know that He has proven Himself faithful over and over again.  Proving it to us in a personal way can be different however.  So how can we know He has proved Himself faithful to us in His promises?

We saw that faithfulness for the first time when we trusted Christ.  He was faithful to His promise to forgive us at that very moment, to do what He had promised through the blood of  Christ.  The very fact that we have the ability to be forgiven through trusting Christ is the proof that He fulfills His promises in a  personal way to each one of us.  From there we need to be reading His word to see what His promises are in order to see how He goes about fulfilling them.  There is the key–to know God’s promises in order to recognize that He is fulfilling them.

We are often fooled into thinking God is not fulfilling His promises to us because we don’t understand what those promises are.  For example, God does not promise us a perfect, trouble free life, where He will swoop in solving all our troubles and sorrows.  What He does however promise is this:  "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deut. 31:8 NIV).  I know this because He has proven it to me even in small ways.  Like reminding me of a passage from His word I had hidden in my heart when I needed it, in a situation where I could not pick up His word to read it.  God is faithful to this promise, we just need to know the promise to realize He is keeping it!

To understand that God is keeping His promises, including that He is our Strong Tower, we need to know the promises He has made to us.  We need to be in His word, reading those promises.  Strength comes from knowing the promises and seeing them fulfilled because we see the Lord working in our life, despite our situation.  When we see the fulfillment of the promises, even in the smallest of ways, we are renewed in our strength because God is a strong tower,  can withstand the fight and has resilience beyond measure.

Physical pain effects us in so many ways.  It is more then what we endure physically, it trickles into other aspects of our lives because we require the use of our physical body to do the tasks of every day life.  Even the simplest things can become difficult when our bodies do not agree with what we may want to accomplish.  Physical trials of many kinds can often seem to go on for the longest in our path.  Some of us have physical trials that last weeks, months, years, or all of our lives.  We are still Gods workmanship (Eph 2:10 ), and God is still going to use the situation we are in to mold us into the person He wants us to be.  The physical trial we are in is a result of the fact that we are in our physical state.  A body that can become broken, battered, and bruised.

It should not come as a surprise however that our bodies go through physical trials, because our bodies are imperfect. They are natural, weak, and an perishable creation.  We know this from 1 Corinthians 15 (1Cor 15:42-44 ).  From that same passage we also learn that there is a spiritual body.  In stark contrast to our physical bodies our spiritual body is going to be imperishable, raised in glory and power!  What hope that gives us in physical trial.  The promise that it truly is only temporary, no matter the length here on earth.  We know this to be true because our fleshly bodies will be changed before we inherit the kingdom of God, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50 ).  What a powerful promise of God to remember, that no matter our physical condition, it will not last forever because we will be changed before we inherit eternity.  We will be imperishable.

We must also remember that we are being renewed here on earth, molded on Gods anvil, changed into the image of God as we run the race He has laid before us.  He is using the very circumstance we are in to make us into the person He desires us to be while we are here on earth.  Remembering that and Gods promise, and it becomes much easier to see Gods plan, rather than mans circumstances.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor. 4:17-18

As humans we always want to plan, we want to have it all together, we want to say our future is all tucked in and ready to go.  We make plans, we chart our course, we put away money, we have short term and long term goals, calendars, and all kinds of reminder systems.  Then something comes along to change that.  What? This could be a small bump in the path or a long detour in the roadway.  Somehow we always react with “That wasn’t in the plan”.  God always knew it was coming.  It is no surprise to God that something different happened then what we expected.  Now He is about to use this detour, or bump, to shape us into the person He wants us to be.

God was fully aware of what was about to come in our life, and He intends it for our good and to prosper us.  Jeremiah 29:11 makes that very promise to us.  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” (Jer. 29:11 NIV)  God not only knew what was coming (Job 23:10), He is going to use it for our benefit.  That benefit may not always be the easiest to see in the midst the circumstance, as a matter of fact I will admit it is often impossible to see, but it is there.  God promised us the benefit is there.  I trust His promises.

In the midst of the trial, the bump, the detour in our plan, we need to be looking to what God is doing.  Knowing that He has made a promise to prosper us and give us a hope and a future, to mold us and refine us, allows us to focus on Him rather then the circumstance.  Though that benefit may not be immediately obvious to our human eyes, we can ask the Lord to help us focus on His work in us, rather than the temporary situation around us.  He knew the bump, the detour, the change in plans was coming, so we can trust that He is going to fulfill His promise once again, as He always has.