I WILL PRAISE YOU IN THIS STORM

I thought I knew faith. Thought I believed in miracles. Until I was standing in the storm.

God doesn’t always reveal His presence in the expected; sometimes, we find Him in the unexpected, like in the lyrics of a song. Praise You in this Storm by Casting Crowns was that song. It came at a time in my life when my faith was being tested far beyond what I had in me.

I heard God’s voice in the words, “I am with you.”

The storm is where faith is tested.

It’s hard to lift our hands in praise when we’re hurting and afraid. It’s hard to trust when our world is shattering all around us.

We pray for the storm to pass. We ask God to step in and save us. But what if God’s purpose is the storm? What if we’re meant to stand in the onslaught, and rather than fighting against it, we’re meant to reach out to Him?

God remains faithful no matter where we are. He’s with us in our triumphs, and He stands right beside us when the storms come. That’s who He is.

Faith is believing that and trusting that God has a plan for our lives that is greater than anything we could ever imagine, even in the storm.

Finding God in the storm is where faith begins.

Part of this story isn’t mine to tell. It’s our daughter’s. She’s the one who lived it. We were with her, of course, doing all we could, but the fight itself was hers. And God’s.

Emma was 17 when she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in the spring of 2016. We weren’t expecting the diagnosis. No parent ever is. The storm came nonetheless. 

For Em, it was almost a relief. She’d been sick for nearly a year without any answers. I think, finally knowing brought her peace. She knew what she was facing. 

Emma accepted her storm quickly. She trusted that God had a purpose for her, and even though she didn’t fully understand it, she knew she had no choice but to move through it.

And she did. The morning after receiving her diagnosis, she went into surgery to be fitted with her port, and that evening, she began her first round of chemo. 

It was faith that gave her the strength to push through the treatments, side effects, and pain that were to come.

She didn’t feel sorry for herself or question why. For her, the answers weren’t necessary. Instead, she focused on the path ahead, as hard as she knew it would be.

From the beginning, her attitude was positive. She had faith that with God’s help, she would win the fight, one way or another. She wasn’t wrong.

The miracle came early on. Within the first few treatments, her prognosis was extraordinary. Emma’s resolve grew stronger with each step, and the cancer grew weaker and weaker until it was completely gone. 

That was ten years ago.

Today, Emma is healthy and whole. At 27, she is so much stronger and wiser than I was at her age. She doesn’t dwell on the past. She accepts what she went through, but it doesn’t define her. Her focus is not on what lies behind her, but on what exists within her.

God has a purpose for everything, even the storm.

Only now, after all this time, do I finally understand that God had a purpose for me in all of it. He was reaching out to me through Emma. The miracle of faith I witnessed in her was what God wanted me to see. 

At the time, though, I couldn’t get past the illness threatening my daughter long enough to hear Him. I wanted to know why, wanted to take it from her, was afraid, and, to be honest, angry. I couldn’t see past my own struggles. Fear blinded me to the higher purpose unfolding right in front of me.

More than that, by allowing despair to overpower me, I let Emma down. My lack of faith prevented me from fully being there for her when she needed me most. My selfish desire for control clouded my judgment and vision. 

What I failed to understand then is the same thing I’d failed to acknowledge the majority of my life. I was not in control; I had never been.

I asked God for answers, rather than trusting His plan — I prayed for Emma to be spared from suffering, rather than trusting His purpose. My prayers went unanswered, not because God wasn’t listening, but because I was asking for the wrong things.

I stood in my way. Not only that, I stood in God’s way, too. And I let the people who needed me most down again and again.

The storm blinded me.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, I understand now that God was using Emma to prepare me for the storm I’d face barely a year after bringing her home. 

Through her, He was showing me exactly what it means to surrender. He was teaching me how powerful faith is and how trusting we’re called to be. Because, just as surely as He authored the plans for Emma’s life, He knew exactly what lay ahead of me.

And when my Storm came, I finally understood what He’d been trying to tell me during her illness, “This struggle isn’t yours, it’s hers. You can’t take it from her. This battle isn’t hers, it‘s Mine. Have faith and trust Me, I have her.”

Those words were but an echo when I finally entered treatment for alcoholism and the eating disorder I’d battled for over three decades. But I heard them, “Have faith and trust Me, I have you.” I carried them, and for the first time in my life, surrendered to them.

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God uses the storm to accomplish His will.

In my walk of faith, I’ve come to understand that the trials and tribulations I’m called to endure draw me closer to God. It’s through suffering that I learn to depend on God and to trust His plans and purpose for my life.

Witnessing our daughter’s battle with cancer was no different. Though the struggle was hers, my faith was being tested. I failed.

When the miracle of her complete healing came, I was grateful and overjoyed, as we all were. Yet, I still didn’t see the door God had opened in front of me.

The mountain standing in my way blocked my vision. And I continued to suffer in its shadow. Once again, I turned my back on God, and yet once again, He waited patiently for me.

When the time came, and I finally did begin my steep climb up that mountain, all the times He’d reached out to me and all the ways He’d tried to teach me became clear.

God met me in the storm, just as He’d promised. And I finally lived the words, “I will praise you in this storm and I will lift my hands, for You are who You are, no matter where I am. And every tear I’ve cried, You hold in Your hands. You never left my side. And though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm.”

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WHERE DOES MY HELP COME FROM?

Do I truly TRUST in God,

the ONE who made all things?

Do I answer when He calls,

and SURRENDER to His NAME?

Do I LIVE His WORDS?

HONOR Him with every breath?

Or do I stumble blindly

when faced with trials that test

my faithfulness and courage,

that demand so much of me?

Following my own path,

instead of where He leads?

In my weakness, He’s my STRENGTH.

In my doubt, He’s my ASSURANCE.

When I falter, He’s the hand

that nurtures my ENDURANCE.

May I TRUST in God,

without needing the answers.

May I follow where He leads,

with FAITH that never wavers.

May I HONOR Him completely.

HUNGER for His PRESENCE.

May the ROCK on which I stand,

lead me to the FORTRESS,

of His abiding LOVE,

where His GRACE covers me.

The SHIELD of DIVINE MERCY,

that fills me with His PEACE. 

AMEN.

JN Fenwick (©2026)

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JN Fenwick | mothjournal14 | ©2026 | All rights reserved. | I DO NOT WALK THIS RECOVERY JOURNEY ALONE.

I’m JN Fenwick

Wife, mom, but more importantly, a recovering alcoholic with a grateful heart. For years, I struggled, not just with alcohol, but with an eating disorder and the burdens of guilt and shame. On March 22, 2018, I surrendered my life to Christ. I was 51. God did not forsake me. He welcomed me, as undeserving as I am. He did not see my brokenness. Instead, He saw my potential. My Recovery Journey is one of Faith. From the ashes of my failures, God built a fire in me. A fire that guides each step I take. My journey is yours. My healing can be yours, too. God is a mighty warrior. You can take comfort in the promise that the Lord will fight for you and grant you peace.