Don’t be surprised by a test of your faith after God has taught you something from His Word! God wants us to know Him and truths about Him, but He also wants us to practice the faith He builds in us. One major way He does that is through storms in life. Storms are not always evidence of disobedience in a person’s life. In fact, the disciples were obeying Jesus when He told them to get in the boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The storm came upon them in a time of complete obedience. Did Jesus know the storm was coming when He put those disciples in the boat? ABSOLUTELY! By the end of the account, the disciples are proclaiming His command of the weather and nature itself. That wasn’t the point of the miracle. Jesus was trying to see if they would trust Him IN the storm.
1. Jesus promised they would reach the other side."On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us go across to the other side.'” Mark 4:35
He didn’t say maybe we’ll make it if the storm isn’t too bad. He definitively told them to get in the boat so they could go to the other side. God always enables us to do what He commands us to do. Philippians 1:6 says that Jesus is faithful to complete in us what He calls us to do.
The disciples were perplexed and almost incredulous at Jesus’ being asleep while they were at the point of death, they thought. How often in life do we stoop to the “depths of despair” thinking that no one, not even God, cares? Does He care about our struggles? Of course, He does. He calmed the storm, the winds, and the waves with His words because He cared for the faithless disciples. But the storm wasn’t their biggest problem. The biggest problem was their heart of unbelief! Wiersbe made this profound statement: “Our greatest problems are within us, not around us.” Are you lacking peace in your life because of a heart of unbelief?
This was only one of many lessons that Jesus taught His disciples, but I see myself needing this lesson so often in my life. God’s Word is overflowing with promises that should help me walk through the storms of life, but I must be in the Word, knowing what it says and then putting into practice the truths I have learned. I must constantly be fighting against a heart of unbelief when I see the tempest raging around me. My God can be trusted! But I have to know Him in order to trust Him. How can we weather the storms of life without crippling fear unless we know the One Who is in the boat with us? May God help us to learn from the disciples’ mistakes and seek to know God more so we can trust Him in the midst of the storm!
How have you learned to trust God more through the storms of life?
1 Comment
11/22/2021 09:38:52 pm
Hi Amanda,
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