Sheila Walsh - Gods Shelter for Your Storm

TO :
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FROM :
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SHEILA WALSH

Gods Shelter
FOR YOUR STORM

This book is a derivative of
The Shelter of Gods Promises by Sheila Walsh

Gods Shelter for Your Storm

2011 by Sheila Walsh

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications. Inc., 7680 Goddard St., Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
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Cover design by Susan Browne Design, Brentwood, TN

Interior typeset by Koechel Peterson Design, Minneapolis, MN

Managing Editor: Lisa Stilwell

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Scripture quotations are taken from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1993, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4041-9010-8

Printed in China

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Table of Contents

STRENGTH: Our Heavenly Father Offers
the Sacrament of Suffering

Introduction
Between a Rock
and a Hard Place

T HE STORMS OF LIFE ARE NOT DISCRIMINATING. We all experience them no matter our age or status. Any one of us at any time can find ourselves surprised by joy one minute and overwhelmed by grief the next. We dont get that job we had counted on. The man we love suddenly decides he doesnt love us back. The test results come back positive. Our children make bad choices and take paths we never would have chosen for them. Someone we love dies.

When these storms come, its our human nature to become anxious, even fearful, as we step into the unknown of what lies ahead. We get tired and confused and sometimes even lose our way as the weight of life presses down. But were told in Gods Word that we shouldnt be surprised when we encounter these tough times. After all, Jesus Himself experienced them; why should we expect an easier path? Jesus promised that although we would face tribulation, to take heart (John 16:33). For He has overcome.

And that was only one of His promises to us. When life throws us curves, when people disappoint us, when circumstances make us question our faith, we have His promises of hope to hold on to in the tough times. When we open Gods Word, we are greeted with truths like these: God is faithful, He loves you, He is all powerful, nothing is impossible for Him, He is always good, and He will never let you go. What a gift!

Through His written Word as well as in conversations with fellow believers, in our prayer time and our times of worship, we can hear God saying, I am with you, and I always will be. I know life is hard. So I provide relationships that refresh and sustain, truths that enable you to persevere and keep hoping, and My Spirit to guide and strengthen you. And I Myself am always here for you.

When I began to pray about this book, one specific objective served as a plumb line for my writing: What are the promises of God the Father and Jesus, His Son, that we can stake our lives on? The Bible contains many more promises than those in this book. In fact, more than three thousand promises take us from the first page of Genesis to the last words of revelation. But I chose ten promises that serve as foundation stones in a shelter that can help us weather the worst storms.

As I worked through the material and read and reread the chapters, I began to see a picture emerge that initially I had not even considered. As the mist of deadlines and busyness began to clear, I saw something that was breathtakingly beautiful to me. I saw not only that all Gods promises of shelter are fulfilled in Christ, but that He is our Shelter. He is the cleft in the rock. Christs promise to us is not that He will give us shelter but that He will be our Shelter.

When we know Gods promises to us and trust that Christ will indeed be our Shelter, we can know that we are loved, safe and protected, and spared despite the tough circumstances of life. The writer of Psalm 121 knew that feeling of security and praised God for that blessing:

I lift up my eyes to the hills
where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip
he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither
slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

This so-called Song of Ascentsone of fifteen psalms the faithful Jews sang as they climbed the road on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship Godmay become your own song of ascent. By Gods grace, you will come to celebrate the shelter He promises and provides. And by His grace, you canlike the psalmistlearn to sense the Lords constant presence with you and to be aware of His help, His watchful eye on your comings and goings, and His keeping you from harm. And when youre in the storm and under pressure, when you feel as if youre between a rock and a hard place, God will take youas He has faithfully taken me again and againto a place of rest, comfort, and hope.

In His love,

Promises,
Promises
Anchors
in Lifes Storms

FOR NO MATTER HOW MANY
PROMISES GOD HAS MADE,
THEY ARE YES IN CHRIST.
AND SO THROUGH HIM THE
AMEN IS SPOKEN BY US TO
THE GLORY OF GOD.

2 CORINTHIANS 1:20

P INKIE PROMISE!... Cross my heart and hope to die! . .. We grow up on promises. We start making promises when were young, and our friends make promises to us. With those promises comes a sense of securityand who doesnt want that, whatever the age!

I was past the pinkie-promise stage when I first started learning about Gods promises in Scripture. But my desire to do an in-depth study of these promises actually began with a letteran actual delivered-to-my-mailbox letter, which is rare these days. I picked up the hand-addressed envelope and began to read.