Are you struggling today with the out-of-nowhere storm that suddenly popped up in your life?

Maybe it’s an unexpected health diagnosis rocking your very core.

Or your spouse recently chose to walk away from you and your sacred marriage vows.

It could be a financial crush leaving you wondering how you’re going to make ends meet.

Sometimes we find ourselves shifting full throttle into becoming a full-time caretaker for a family member.

Perhaps it’s the cold, slap-in-the-face betrayal from a trusted friend you didn’t see coming.

Maybe you lost your job and have no idea what your next step in life is.

But no matter what you’re facing you find yourself saying… God, I don’t like this boat I’m in.

It’s not as if you stumbled upon this boat and happily decided to climb aboard.

You didn’t even get the chance to formally accept or decline an invitation to enter.

Yet here you are smack dab in the middle of a storm and your boat is drifting farther and farther away from the shorelines of normalcy.

I know you’re feeling like there’s no plausible way out. I’ve been here many times too.

We want to be brave but we’re scared.

We desperately want peace yet we’re consumed with anxiety.

We can’t eat; can’t sleep.

And the waters only seem to get deeper and deeper and angrier and angrier.

But friend, as I re-read the story of Jesus calming the storm tucked at the end of Mark 4, there’s one sentence that stood out like never before… “So they took Jesus in the boat and started out…” Mark 4:36 (NLT)

It occurred to me as I began looking back on most of the near shipwrecks of my life, how I neglected to make sure Jesus was in my boat.

Oh, I certainly complained to Him about my boat.

I pleaded with Him to know why I was in this boat.

I dumped bucket after bucket of water overboard depending only on myself from capsizing my boat. My pride told me… surely Traci you can fix this situation.

For years I lived life never making sure Jesus was in my boat. And maybe this is where you find yourself today.

So how do we make sure Jesus is in our boat? We simply invite Him in.

But it just doesn’t feel that simple does it? Because inviting Him in means trusting Him with our everything and giving Him full control.

It means looking to Him as not only our Savior but also our Lord. And that’s where we can make it incredibly hard.

It’s so easy to only call out to Him when we need Him the most.

But Jesus wants to do life with us all the time. Not just when we’re in a crisis.

We do this by walking day in day out by His side.

We worship and praise.

We pray and give thanks.

We trust and obey.

We allow Him to lead and guide.

We patiently wait when His time doesn’t match our own.

We call Him Savior and make Him Lord.

This is how we know He’s in our boat before the storm.

And if you didn’t invite Him in before, don’t worry friend. Invite Him in right now during the storm. He’s patiently waiting to climb aboard.

Make sure Jesus is in your boat.

And when we do, we’ll see the Lord of our lives standing in the stern silencing our storm. Because “even the wind and waves obey Him!”

❤️Traci