Two men in the Bible got caught in terrible storms on the very same sea. One was Jonah. The other was the apostle Paul, hundreds of years later. Check this out: Jonah’s storm came because he had disobeyed God and run away. But Paul’s storm had nothing to do with disobedience at all—he was on that ship because he was serving God faithfully. Same sea and waves, but two completely different reasons.

That’s important, because sometimes when difficult things happen, we think, “This must be my fault. God must be mad at me.” Sometimes a storm really is the result of a bad choice we made. But a lot of the time it isn’t, just like Paul’s storm.

Your storms probably don’t involve boats. Your storm might be your parents arguing a lot lately. It might be a grandparent who’s sick. It might be that you moved to a new town and haven’t found a friend yet, or that reading is hard for you and everyone else seems to finish first.

Storms are no fun. Nobody signs up for them. But guess what? There has never been a single storm that was too big for God’s reach. And when you go through hard things with God, you usually end up knowing Him better than the people who have never had a hard day in their lives.

Think About It: What’s the hardest thing in your life right now? Instead of asking “Why is this happening to me?” try asking, “God, what could You be telling me through this?” What’s one way you’ve already grown stronger because of something hard?