Fair-weather Christians

It is easy to be a Christian when life is good, when the sun is shining down on us, when everything is going right. But we need to keep firm in faith when the storms come, for they will come. And God promises to never let go of us. He walks the dark valley with us. He upholds us with his victorious right hand and will not let us sink. We need to let praises rise during the rough as well as the good, trusting him to pull us through.
Job knew all about the dark valley. In one day he lost all his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his camels, his servants, his farmhands, his shepherds, and just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, all his children died in a windstorm. And you thought you were having a bad day when you slept through your alarm and were late for work. Job had every right to be feeling down, but yet that is not what he does. Instead, after losing it all, he continues to praise God, saying: “I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be naked when I leave.
The LORD gave me what I had,
and the LORD has taken it away.
Praise the name of the LORD!” Job 1:21 When the storm came, Job kept praising. When things got tough he didn’t quit. He remained faithful to God, trusting him through the storm as well as the calm. So often when the going is good, we can coast along in our faith, things are easy and following God is simple. But when the storm comes it all falls apart.
When the bad news comes, when the heartache arrives, when life gets hard, when the stuff hits the fan, that’s when following God gets hard. When the sun is shining it is easy. When there is no trouble and you don’t need to have faith in God to sustain you through each day it is easy. But in life the weather won’t always be fair. There will be storms. Hopefully not as huge as the one Job faced, but storms none the less. And through the storm we need to cling to Jesus as our anchor to get us through.
In Isaiah 43:1-3 God promises us “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. ”
Through the rivers of difficulty, God is with us. Through the fire of oppression, God is with us. Through the storms of life, God is with us. He will be our Saviour. He will not let us drown. When things get tough, He will sustain us. The cross is proof of God’s unfailing love for us. When the storm of life is raging, when all around us things seem to be falling to pieces, remember the cross. Remember there is hope. Remember that God is not just with us in the sunshine, but He is there in the midst of the storm. Remember there is a light that is coming for the heart that holds on. There will be a day when God will “wipe every tear from [our] eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” Revelation 21:4. But until that day we have the cross to remind us that His love for us is unfailing, and that in the midst of the storms of life Jesus is our hope of a much, much better life to come. Don’t just be a fair-weather Christian. Like Job, keep praising through the storm, and look forward to the day when God will wipe away your tears.

Image source: http://humblepiety.blogspot.com/2011/05/rain.html