Ten-year-old John selected a Psalm to read before bedtime this past week: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.” (Psalm 29:3-4)
“I know what this is talking about,” John said. “What’s that?” I asked. “When Jesus was in the boat with his friends and the storm came, his voice went over the waters and made things better.” “Hmmm…, I think you’re right.”
The voice of the Lord can calm any situation and the presence of the Lord is our need for any storm. So many of our persecuted brothers and sisters teach us deep lessons as they testify of God’s faithfulness in suffering.
European Christians helped Brother Yun and his family escape his native country China in 2001. For twenty years he was a wanted man for refusing to be silent about Jesus. Arrested numerous times, Brother Yun spent over seven years in different prisons and endured incredible torture for the name of Christ. Through all his experiences, our brother’s great testimony is: ‘God is with us.’
He wrote: “The people who really suffer are those who have never experienced God’s presence. The way to have God’s presence is by walking through hardship and suffering – the way of the cross. When a child of God suffers you need to understand that God allows it. He has not forgotten you! The devil cannot snatch you away! Jesus made this beautiful promise to his children: ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.’” (John 10:27-29)
“Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:24-26
Quote from Brother Yun, The Heavenly Man, ©2002 Monarch Books, p. 312