David instructs us, “Those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence” (Psalm 31:19–20). It is time to shut ourselves in with Christ and pour out our hearts to Him.

When the fury of the storm strikes, we will need our own individual supply of strength. When we are in the midst of the storm, none of us will be able to make it on the strength of anyone else. We won’t be able to draw on our mate, our pastor, our friend, even a prophet of God.

The writer of Hebrews praises the testimony of those believers who were strengthened through faithful prayer: “You endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations . . . and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods” (Hebrews 10:32–34).

“At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. [Notwithstanding] the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me … And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever” (2 Timothy 4:16-18, my italics).

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2, my italics).

This message is meant for all who have fallen away or turned away from the Lord. According to the apostle Paul, who wrote the verse above, “Today is the day of mercy and grace.” In other words, if you ever plan to believe, that time is now.

You may say, “I think I’m well prepared for any storm. After all, I’m a faithful witness for the Lord. I’m not ashamed of the gospel and I live a clean, moral life. I tithe, I read my Bible, and I attend church regularly.”

It is possible to be a believer and yet remain distant from the Lord. The fact is, if you don’t spend time with Him — if you don’t draw on His strength — your heart will faint. Your words will have little or no power or results and your testimony will be lifeless. Why? Because you will have drifted away from your source of strength.

The devil greatly fears the Lord’s presence in our lives. He trembles at the very thought of a believer’s nearness to Jesus. So, when his demonic hordes see you breathing out prayers and drawing near to the presence of your heavenly Father, all hell takes note: “The Lord is with this believer. He has obtained the divine presence. What can we do against him now?”

Satan will do everything in his power to rob you of the Lord’s presence. It is why he makes so many attempts to bog down your soul with worries about the future.

When the world seems to be shaking, a people will arise who know how to maintain their strength in the midst of it all. These are people who draw near to the Lord in times of crisis.

According to Scripture, it won’t matter to these people if the moon and stars fall from the sky, or if the mountains quake and fall into the sea. They will still have faith in the Lord to save them, and they will not have their faith shaken by anything that comes.

When I personally need some measure of hope, I want to speak to someone I know, someone who has experience with enduring tribulation and pain. I don’t want someone who will offer me hollow platitudes, such as, “Just hang in there,” or “Just trust God.” My suffering soul cannot be moved or touched by words of mere human sympathy.

Rather, I would love to talk for half an hour with the believer who emailed me about having to watch his wife slowly die of Lou Gehrig’s disease. As this man described to me the depth of his pain, he said, “God is good. He is seeing me through.”

I received an e-mail from a pastor who had quit his church. This poor man had fallen into deep sin and lost his wife and children. His whole life fell apart and he found himself staring at death.

In his darkest hour, he fell on his knees and cried for help. Jesus came to this broken, desperate man and breathed new life into him. Soon afterward, the man’s wife called him, saying, “I miss Jesus. Can we try again?”

God means it when He says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Throughout Romans 8, Paul outlines the destructive realities of sin. He states, “If you live after the flesh, you will die. To be lust-driven, to live only by the senses, leads to death. The body is dead because of sin.”

In short, death means having no life. And only Jesus provides life, declaring, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).