The Storms of Life: Why We Will Always Need Them
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” Mathew 7: 24, 25.
Here we have the familiar story Jesus told of the houses built on two foundations. We understand intuitively why the foolish have to go through storms, but according to the above passage the wise do too.
Storms of Life: Why Do the Wise Need Them?
My question is, if the purpose of storms is to make us wise or mature, why do the wise have to go through them? I don’t believe it’s just because “that’s life”. I think if we go through something, it’s because we need it, whether we realize it or not (and we usually don’t).
To read the full parable for context, click here.
I believe a major reason even the wise must endure storms is because trouble and trials are the only way we gain in the spiritual realm.
Everything we experience in life, whether good or bad, bane or blessing is either obvious gain in the natural realm, or potential gain in the spiritual realm. (It’s potential because how we respond will determine whether it ends up being a blessing or a curse).
We Need Storms to Gain in the Spiritual Realm
If we were only blessed all the time, and never experienced storms or trials, we would never have an opportunity to gain spiritual blessings. I’m talking about things like repentance, strength, maturity, wisdom, insight and a deeper relationship with God.
And the truth is, to the degree we have spiritual blessings, to that degree will we have natural blessings. That’s because when our character lacks nothing, our life lacks nothing (Psalm 84: 11).
So, we must learn to welcome and embrace and even rejoice in storms as much as the sunny days with blue skies. Because they are what prepare us for greater gain in the natural realm. They also enable us to help someone else because of the wisdom we gain.
Our tendency is to embrace the good times and curse the hard times. But if we understood that the hard times are at least as much a blessing, and produce just as much gain as the good, we’d have a different attitude.
If we don’t mature, we won’t make it to our promise land. And it’s the hard times in life, the storms, that provide the opportunity to gain the maturity we need to make it there.
Storms of Life Eventually Produce the Rewards of Wisdom
The reason we have such a hard time appreciating storms is because this takes faith. In the storm we gain something just as real and good as in the sunshine. But it’s spiritual and intangible.
Storms are necessary to give us increasing degrees of maturity and wisdom so we can have increasing degrees of the rewards of wisdom (long life, honor, wealth, a peaceful, pleasant life). See Proverbs 3: 13-18.
We all would prefer the good times without the bad. But we cannot have greater blessings until we have greater maturity. And we don’t get greater maturity without storms.
Natural storms occur when there is an imbalance in the atmosphere and continue until the imbalance has been corrected. In order to have nice, sunny weather and blue skies, we must have balance. And the only way to get it, if its lacking is with a storm.
Storms Occur to Correct an Imbalance
Even the wise need to gain wisdom. And if the wise never experienced a storm, I think they would grow hard-hearted and eventually become foolish (think Solomon).
The wise need to repent at times, and gain more strength, maturity, wisdom and insight, and a deeper relationship with God.
The wise cannot gain in the spiritual realm any more than anyone else without a storm.
To read another post related to The Storms of Life: Why We Need Them, see Growing Weary and How to Stay Strong.