Hurricane Alert

When I first started working out with my personal fitness trainer, something amazing happened. He had me walking on a treadmill and he was on the machine right next to me. I saw the swirl icon on the monitor moving around the track as I progressed, and I asked him, “What is that?”

“E” was his nickname for me, short for Elizabeth, and I loved his response, “Hurricane E.” It made me feel stronger and immediately became my new nickname.

God has put several people in my heart to stay connected with and to encourage as they face the day-day challenges in their lives. I was moved by a text I received from one of those friends, telling me that I was “a force.” I take no credit for those words. She is my close friend, and I care about her, but it was undeniably God who had directed me to text her, call to see how she was, and send her cards to uplift her spirit as she dealt with debilitating health issues.

She recently shared with me that her father was in the hospital. I remembered having talked with him the month before about his relationship with God, and I came away from the conversation feeling that he had not yet given his heart to the Lord.

God issued a powerful alert in my mind that this was a critical time for him, and that he needed to get saved. I spoke to my friend about it, who was not well enough to visit him. God compelled me to encourage her to get him on the phone, witness to him, and say the salvation prayer with him. The Holy Spirit put the winds of a hurricane behind my words of what needed to be done. It was as though I had little control over the persistence that God had given me to relay this important task to her, calling and texting her about this mission. She knew that he was a private person when it came to discussing his views on religion. Nevertheless, she courageously

picked up the phone, shared with him what God had done in her life, and then said the salvation prayer with him. Praise God, he accepted Jesus as his savior right there on the phone.

A while back God directed me to keep checking on one of my friends who was having a difficult time with depression. I was following-up with her recently to see if she had received a card I had sent her, concerned it might have been lost in the mail. As we were talking, she told me that I probably didn’t realize how God had used me to save her life, but one day He would let me know.

We often don’t know what impact our words or actions have on other people. I felt grateful that God had used me to help make a difference in her life. I shared what my friend had told me with my prayer partner. He replied, “God is using you through your talents and gifts to bless others. You are a hurricane for God.”

I felt God had used my prayer partner to relay this important message and responsibility to me. My nickname took on a whole new, significant meaning. We think of a hurricane causing destruction, but the Holy Spirit moving with the force of a hurricane is a powerful gift from God. Whether we are trying to escape from a storm of danger, despair, or uncertainty, the Holy Spirit is there to guide us out into the presence and power of God’s love and strength.

Lord Jesus, we ask it in your name - Let your Holy Spirit help us to encourage one another and move forward with the force of a hurricane to fulfill Your will in our lives. Amen

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” - Isaiah 40:31