Storms make strong roots

We have a tall columnar aspen in our backyard. When first planted, any strong wind threatened to blow it sideways and yank it right out of the ground. We staked it for a little while, but after a time were told to take off the supports because they would actually make the tree weaker. The tree expert said that by being buffeted in the wind, the tree roots grow stronger.

I find it no coincidence that my Creator says the same things about the difficulties of life. When I struggle against the currents or when trials threaten to blow me off my feet, God is at work to make me stronger, even if I cannot see Him.

Hezekiah, king of Judah, knew this. He was ill and after he recovered, he recorded how helpless he felt. He also wrote about God’s response to his condition. He knew that his struggles were somehow related to his sinfulness and instead of fighting the illness (or his other trials), he learned that he must first focus on the problem of sin. Then his other problems would go away too. In Isaiah 38:16, he says, “O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so You will restore me and make me live.”

Hezekiah’s “these things” are about trials and deliverance. He knew that every time he sank to the depths God would raise him up again. Like any believer in God, sometimes he felt stripped naked, and other times he knew the sweet clothing of the Lord’s righteousness. Sometimes he was empty and without strength, but at other times he knew the filling of the Holy Spirit.

It is “by these things” that the person of God lives. As my devotional reading says, this is a mystery, but also a great truth. I know that as I die to the desires of the flesh, the cares of this world, the lies of Satan, and the appeals of all things temporary, the more the life of God is strengthened in me and in my awareness.

Some of this is learned through great afflictions, yet at first it seemed they would overwhelm me, even rob me of my place before God and ruin my faith. Yet (unknown to me) as trials hit me with all their force, my roots were reaching deeper into God. Not only that, the winds of adversity were sweeping away the excess and the garbage caught in my branches. Rather than affliction overwhelming me, my faith has been strengthened by the same powers that threatened to ruin it and blow it away.

Today’s reading says, “True faith is no more destroyed by sharp trials, than the oak is destroyed by . . . a storm blowing down some of its rotten branches.” The writer adds that the more the winds blow upon the oak, the firmer its roots are in the soil. In the same way, the “storms and tempests that blow upon the soul, only cause it to take a firmer hold of the truth, and to strike its fibers more deeply into the Person, love, work, and blood of Jesus.”

It is by trial and tests that, “men (and women) live” for through them, the life of God is maintained and kept up in my heart, the Holy Ghost secretly strengthening it by the very things that seemed to threaten it with destruction.

I’m feeling blown about, not by externals but by the Holy Spirit as He works to rid my life of my bad habits. I know this is important (for by this, I live), but this storm isn’t much fun. Yet I also know that it is from God, so I am encouraged by Hezekiah’s words that He will “restore me and make me live.”