Have you ever asked yourself what makes a tree healthy and tall? The answer is quite surprising, and it can help us handle our lives differently when we face trials and tribulations. When the wind blows and batters the tree, it causes the tree roots to dig deep into the soil. If it is planted in nutritious soil, this will give the tree more nourishment to grow and become a strong, healthy, tall tree. If the tree is planted in unhealthy soil and unable to provide nourishment, it will break and fall over. So the wind that seemingly causes the tree’s problems is a blessing, but only if the tree is planted in fertile soil.
Yehovah, our God, is the one who permits the wind to blow and batter the tree. Even though we might perceive it as uncomfortable for the tree, He allows this to happen so the tree can dig deep to find its nourishment. But it is also a matter of selection because only those trees which have access to the good soil will, in the end, stand through the storm. So by allowing the wind to blow, Yehovah can see which tree will stand and which tree will fall.
What would happen if there were no winds?
As we are about to see, we are not that different from trees.
Sometimes it feels as if an uncontrollable wind is battering us, threatening to break us. We might find it very uncomfortable and see it as an attack from the devil, but have you ever stopped to think perhaps Yehovah your God allows this to happen for a reason?
Why would a good loving God allow you to experience what you are going through right now?
The short answer, because you have a genuine enemy in the devil, and he does not want you to be saved. But the Bible also says, in Rev 12, Rev 14, you can overcome the devil IF and only if you obey the Torah and have the Blood of Yeshua as an atoning sacrifice for your sins.
Whatever you might be experiencing right now, Yehovah has allowed it hoping it will motivate your roots to dig deep into the Torah. For Yehovah knows the more you obey Torah, the more you will overcome the devil.
Yehovah wants you to overcome the devil, but He can not force you to obey His Torah. So just as with the trees, He allows it to happen, hoping it will cause you to obey His Torah. And the more you follow the Torah, the more you will be spiritually healthy and able to overcome the devil. But as with the trees, if you draw your spiritual nourishment from someone who does not believe the Torah applies to you, the wind will break you, and you will fall. (Matt 7:24-27, John 15:2)
This is why, just as with the trees, what seems uncomfortable and even an attack from the devil is, in fact, a blessing from Yehovah.
The question is not why a good loving God would allow you to go through what you are experiencing right now. Instead, the question should be, why would a good loving God choose to shield you from what helps you grow as a Christian and gives you the ability to overcome the devil? The answer is, a good loving God allows you to go through this so you can grow as a Christian, overcome the devil by digging your roots deep into Torah and find healthy nourishment.
What it all comes down to is this, when we respond to trials and tribulations with Torah obedience, we show Yehovah we trust Him. Our Torah obedience is the outward expression of our faith in Him and His ability to help us and deliver us.
Is it easy and comfortable to choose Torah obedience when we are going through a trial?
No, but the more you make that choice, the easier it gets.
Before I came to Torah, I was a mainstream Christian with roots planted in unhealthy soil. Every time a trial happened, I did what my pastor or favorite TV evangelist told me, I dug my roots deep into whatever they said instead of what the Bible said. If you compare what a pastor/evangelist says to what the Bible says, it is easy to see how only the Bible can give us spiritual nourishment.
As a Christian, the wind pushed me over many times until I got so tired of not seeing victory in my life I decided to replant myself into more fruitful soil. This was when I came to the Torah.
Having decided to obey the Torah does not mean my life suddenly got more comfortable. Instead, it guarantees me Yehovahs help in every situation. And I have time and time seen Yehovah’s hand in my life in ways I could only dream of as a mainstream Christian. But I have also learned that I have to make that difficult choice to respond to a situation with Torah obedience for me to see Yehovah’s help.
The Torah says we are not to test Yehovah, our God. This commandment has several meanings, but one of them is that we are not to dictate Yehovah on how we think He should respond to our prayers. We are to trust Him enough to allow Him to respond the way He sees best when He sees the time is right.
When our car did not pass air care, the mechanic estimated the repairs to about 1100 USD. My wife and I dont have that kind of money, so we prayed for Yehovah to give us the money we needed to fix our car.
Then all of a sudden, we felt the Holy Spirit reminding us of this principle to dig our roots deep into Torah when the winds blow.
So what we did was that we chose to trust the Bible. The Bible says, in Deut 28:1-13, Matt 6:25-34, if we obey the Torah, Yehovah, promises to see to our needs. Yehovah knew our car did not pass air care; He knew we need a car to get to work, and if the Bible is true, then we would not have to ask Him for the money. We would only have to take Jesus on His word in Matt 6:25-34 and make Torah obedience our priority, and then Yehovah would fix this for us before the deadline for the air care ran out in October.
Instead of worrying about this, instead of asking in prayer for money to fix the car, we made Torah obedience our priority believing what the Bible says, if we meditate on His commandments all will be well. (Joshua 1, Psalm 1)
As I have said before, the Torah has 613 commandments. Not all of them apply to us, and none of us can continually think of 100s of commandments. As humans, we dont have that brain capacity because sometimes, as when driving a car, we need to be mentally focused on what we are doing.
Instead of doing the impossible, and meditating on 100s of commandments, my wife and I chose the most important one. “Yehovah is our God, Yehovah is one, we will love Yehovah our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.”
It wasn’t easy at times because the fiery darts of the evil one kept coming at us. At times, we had thoughts like “how are you going to fix this, what if you still dont have the money in October? How will you get to work?”
When those thoughts came, we had a choice. We could give into them and focus our minds on them, but that would be giving in to the enemy. Instead, we choose to focus our minds on the Torah. So we countered every “what if” thought with “Yehovah is our God, Yehovah is one, we will love Yehovah our God with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, all our soul.”
When the attacks got intense, we countered them by speaking to ourselves and reminding us, “Yehovah is our provider because we keep Torah. Yehovah will fix this for us because He knows we need a car, and we keep the Torah.”
Then suddenly, one day, I heard the Holy Spirit telling me to sell our car.
Because my mind was focused on the Torah, and not telling Yehovah how to do His job and how to answer our prayers, I immediately understood this was the Holy Spirit. I still did not know what would happen, but I put the car out for sale online.
A couple of days went by, and we got a fair offer on the car. But we could not sell it unless we could replace it, so a few days later, someone living in our town posted their vehicle for sale. Their asking price was the exact amount the other guy had offered for our car. So we accepted the deal, sold our car, and bought the other one.
So when the winds of a failed air care started blowing at us, we chose to dig our roots deep into Torah, and that meant we did not break or topple over. Digging our roots deep into Torah required us to trust Yehovah enough not to instruct Him in prayer on what to do, but to trust that if we obey Torah, He will fix this one way or the other in due time.
Was it easy? No, at times it was tough. But because we fought the devil’s fiery darts with Torah obedience, Yehovah gave us the perfect car for us. The more you make these types of choices, the easier it gets.
And I know there will be other storms blowing against us and battering us. But I also know that if I make that choice again and dig my roots deep into Torah, I will stand and see Yehovah’s salvation; however strong the storm might be.
Choose wisely, choose to dig your roots deep into Torah, and stand as a healthy strong tree when the winds come. (Matt 7:24-27)
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