When I was a teenager my family built a cottage on a lake near the town of Haliburton, Ontario. Our boat was a 13 foot cedar strip with a 5 horsepower Johnson outboard motor. I loved to motor to the far end of the lake to Bark Bay and fish. One day I was fishing when a storm broke. From the shelter of the bay I looked out at the lake and saw huge waves that appeared very dangerous indeed.

I pushed the throttle wide open and steered the boat out of the bay into the storm and fought my way home. It was my most frightening boating experience ever. As the waves battered the boat and I made my way slowly down the lake I prayed furiously. After all, it is God’s world, and He is sovereign. I desperately needed the Lord’s help to get to the cottage safely.

That day I learned to trust the Lord in new and fervent ways. I was wearing a lifejacket but if the boat overturned I had no guarantee of surviving the storm.

Often in life we only learn of the Lord’s adequacy when we come to the end of our meager resources. Adversity can be helpful as it makes us turn from our limited strength and lean into the limitless resources of our sovereign almighty God.

The sooner we come to our Father in heaven and call on Him to be “the Father of mercies and God of all grace” (2 Cor. 1:3) in our lives, the sooner we will rise up to serve another day. Today your Father in heaven waits for you to call upon His name, so come and come now.