Gladys Aylward was a missionary to China more than 50 years ago. She was forced to leave when Japanese troops invaded Yuncheng. With only one other adult, she attempted the dangerous journey to lead a hundred orphans over the mountain pass towards free China. During the journey, she was overcome with fear. A 13 yr old girl in the group reminded her of the story of Moses. ” But I am not Moses,” Gladys sighed. “Of course you aren’t,” the girl replied, ‘But God is still God!”

I read this in my Bible notes yesterday and was very struck by the simple truth it declared. We may not be the heroes of the Bible but we serve a God who is unchanged. Sometimes He will choose to calm a storm and at other times He will let the storm rage and calm us instead. Nothing that is happening in your life has, or could ever ‘wrong-foot’ Him; nothing surprises Him or changes His plans. Even if there are storms on your horizon and you are unable to turn your boat around in time to avoid them, remember today that Jesus is IN your boat. Don’t look at the size of those waves, look at the power of the one who is with you through them.

When David faced Goliath there were two ways he could have approached the giant. Firstly, he could have said to himself “He’s massive! I can’t defeat him!” Or he could have said, “He’s massive! I can’t miss!” History tells us that the shepherd boy ran towards his nemesis with full faith, trusting in the God of his ancestors.

Some of us are not facing giants. We are facing a number of small things that are coming at us from all angles. Together, they declare war on our peace and stop us in our tracks. Perhaps we need to remember today that we may not be like David, but our God’s CV never needs updating.