“...According to your faith be it unto you.”
Matthew 9:29 kjv
If you travel to the Caribbean from June to November, remember it is hurricane season. Last year, in July 2024, Hurricane Beryl hit several Caribbean islands and left behind total devastation. All around the island was debris, broken rooftops, broken windows, and many people left displaced as they started to rebuild again slowly. It has been reported that the category four hurricane destroyed 90% of the homes on the island of Union in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
A few years ago, the men's ministry department of the Rocky Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church on Union Island came together and built a beautiful little home for an elderly church member, Brother Joseph Franklyn. Once news of the hurricane started brewing, Brother Franklyn's area was asked to evacuate. Brother Franklyn kindly refused. He said that God had given him the house, and he wanted to remain in the comfort of the home that his Heavenly Father had provided. Sure enough, when the hurricane was done raging through the entire island, the people came back to see everything it had destroyed. Debris was all around, but one little wooden house remained untouched by Hurricane Beryl. It was the house of Brother Franklyn. When the people went to knock on his door, they found Brother Franklyn sipping tea in the comfort of his home.
Romans 12:3 states that God has given every believer "the measure of faith." Brother Franklyn definitely put his measure of faith in God, and he was the only one who enjoyed the storm with Jesus in the comfort of his home. He also became the only one to make the news worldwide, but not because his home remained standing. Brother Franklyn made the news because of his great faith. God could have spared his house even if he had decided to evacuate. But there's no miracle there. The miracle is that Brother Franklyn knew God so much that he stayed to show what God could do.
Call to Action
My friends, life's storms will sometimes come raging, looking to take away your peace and shake your faith in Jesus, but do not let it. Psalms 119:165 (KJV) tells us, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Do not let life's hardships and burdens steal your peace, joy, and faith in Jesus. Learn to have a daily experience with the Savior. Sit at His feet and learn of His ways. Brother Franklyn didn't wake up on the day of the hurricane and suddenly thought, “Jesus will save my house today.” He had a daily experience with Jesus. He knew Jesus for himself. He knew what Jesus had done in the past for him and knew that Jesus would do it again. I urge you to get to know Jesus for yourself, and when the storms of life come huffing and puffing, you can say, “With Jesus in the vessel I can smile at the storm.”
All scripture taken from the King James Version.
