Withstanding the Wind - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - October 28

Withstanding the Wind
By Meg Bucher

“He makes the winds his messengers …” - Psalm 104:4

Two peddles into the wind, I hopped off of my bike. “I’m walking,” I yelled back to my dad. We crossed the drawbridge over to the island on foot, the gusting North wind feeling anything but tropical. Palms blew in the breeze against the backdrop of a bright blue and sunny sky, and the bright blue-green hue of the inner coastal waterway.

The cold wind stung my right ear and pushed me off-balance. I set my grip, determined to get to the other side of the bridge. The beautiful surrounding scenery and the gusting wind were in complete conflict.

The winds, messengers, in Psalm 104:4 are agents of God’s purposes. They “describe the servants of Yahweh, who are elsewhere identified with angelic, divine beings.” Angels are messengers, or agents.

Dad and I took a selfie when we made it through the wind and across the bridge. I straightened my bike helmet, knocked crooked by the wind. How could something invisible make such a visible impact? As we stood out on the island, gazing at the gulf, a line of waves crashed onto a sandbar quite a way out. The tumultuous surf was evidence of the power of the wind.

The skies were blue. The sand was soft and warm. The ocean was blue-green. But it churned. Some days don’t look like they should be so much of a struggle. We expect to roll out into a calm routine, forgetting to factor in the breeze. How do we withstand a wind we cannot see?

The gusts crossing the bridge were relentless. Sometimes, hard circumstances hit us out of nowhere and refuse to let up. The gusts may even increase in strength, leaving us reeling to brace our footing! We conquer our convictions by the strength of the Holy Spirit, alone. In fact, there’s not much worth doing that won’t require us to lean into the Living God for strength and determination.

I laughed for the entirety of the long walk across the bridge in the gusting wind. What else could I do? We have a choice, when the wind blows. Not to laugh it off or act like it doesn’t threaten to blow us over, but to lean into the joy that is ours in Jesus. When we look back and wonder how we got across the bridge on foot and against the gusting wind, we will see evidence of His love.

God’s faithful love for us is impossible to fully explain and understand this side of heaven. But it allows us to smile through storms. Even laugh through the gusting wind trying to knock us over.

Knowing the winds are His messengers allows us to see our struggles from a different perspective. It’s not going to be fun down here on earth all of the time. Face the wind, determined. Our invisible God is more powerful than …everything. And He is for us.

Meg Bucher writes about everyday life within the love of Christ as an author, freelance writer and blogger at Sunny&80. Her first book, “Friends with Everyone,”  is available on amazon.com. She earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University, but stepped out of the business world to stay at home and raise her two daughters. Besides writing, she leads a Bible Study for Women and serves as a Youth Ministry leader in her community. She lives in Northern Ohio with her husband, Jim, and two daughters.

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If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.

Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.

Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.

I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!