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| Archives: Being afraid is normal right? One should have a healthy fear of playing on the highway, or of a tornado roaring towards you, or of a poisonous snake lurking nearby. These seem to be normal things that one would fear, right? But what about fear of what life brings us in the form of things like; deteriorating health, or financial loss, loss of a loved one… these things we call the storms of life. How should a Christian react to the storms of life? Jesus gives us a great example when He and the apostles were in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, while in boat- what we presume to be a fishing boat. Not long before they entered the boat the apostles witnessed Jesus’ miracles, healing many people. The apostles witnessed these miracles first hand. They saw His incredible power at work. Now it was time to enter the boat and Matthew wrote: “Then He got into the boat and his disciples followed Him. Without warning, a furious storm came upon the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid”. Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. Then men were amazed and asked. “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and waves obey Him!” It’s interesting to me to read that the storm was so severe that waves were swept over the boat. There is a very good chance that Jesus was getting wet by these waves. (Galilean fishing boats were roughly 26 feet long, 4 feet high, and about 7 feet wide – not very large). Jesus was experiencing the storm right along with them; quite probably getting wet Himself just as the disciples were getting wet. That struck me when I read that. It seems to be parallel to what a loved one undergoes when a spouse or a son/daughter or someone close to them is undergoing a trial or a storm; they also “get wet”; granted maybe to a lesser degree, but they feel it. Remember these are the same disciples that just saw Jesus perform many miracles, but now they were deeply afraid. No doubt some to these men were professional fishermen, who had gone through many rough waters before. But there was something about the severity of this storm that made them very afraid. So this must have been quite a storm. And notice that the text reads “…without warning a furious storm came up…” Isn’t that like most storms in life, they come up suddenly without warning and are furious, taking us by surprise they grab us by the throat and shake us. Jesus was sleeping. This is quite amazing!. He was sleeping during a horrible storm, most likely getting wet, but He was sleeping, He wasn’t fazed by the storm at all. How can that be? Beside the obvious answer – He is God. But I think He was calm, composed and sleeping because He was secure with what God can do, will do and what God has promised will happen in the future. If God chose to take the lives of all on-board, that is okay, because God has ultimate control of everything. One can sleep soundly knowing that God has it all under His control. I think that is what Jesus was doing or showing by example to the disciples. That one can get a good nights rest even though the world is falling apart. Yes, I live in the real world and that is easier said than done. But with a high degree of faith, and pondering on God’s promises and what He had done in the past for me and how His love is never wavering and His faithfulness a solid truth, one can rest in the storms of life. But that faith is built during the times of calm, when there are no storms, when all things are going fine and smoothly, that is time when one cultivates faith. Faith is a gift from God, it comes from hearing the Word of God and it coming through the Word of Christ. Faith is not activating some inner mechanism so that you can accomplish something. Real faith is realizing that you have nothing within yourself, but rather you rely completely and solely on God for everything, particularly on His promises. Faith is that conviction that what you believe is true, that God is and will ever be and what He says is 100% truthful and reliable. It is not an overnight process, but rather a work in progress. It takes cultivating and being in God’s Word. It is built strong in the calm seasons of life. A strong foundation to a home isn’t built during a hurricane, but during good weather. Also recall Romans 8:28 ... “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Even the storms of life have a good consequence for those who love God. Why did Jesus stand up? I found that interesting as well. He just as easily could have calmed the sea while reclining. I think He stood to reiterate and to re-indicate that He is God, that He has Diving Power, that His power is supreme, to refute any notion that the apostles may have had about His power, to refute any idea they had about the miracles they just witnessed as being small, or refute any notion that God is distant and disinterested. I think He stood to show that faith can calm storms, but fear will intensify the “amount of water getting in the boat”. In fact, He indicated that when he asked them. “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” In that question He answers His own question… you are afraid because you have little faith. Or put another way, faith and fear cannot commingle. Fear squelches faith and vice-versa. Jesus performed many miracles, but this one probably stood out in their minds, because they experienced it, they felt it and they lived it. Their fear was genuine and it was something they experienced on their home court – the sea. Storms come to us where we live. They create havoc in our lives, they cause pain, suffering, anger and trouble and they usually come full force and we do “get wet”. With faith, storms can be calmed. Will they be eliminated? No. But they can be reduced to the point where you can sleep through them, just as Jesus did, by the degree of faith a person has in the One who is in control of the storm. Here is a question. How do you think the apostles would have handled the storm if their faith had been strengthened before hand? Remember these are the men who witnessed Jesus perform healing miracles, first hand. Was their faith strong? Apparently not, and Jesus even said so. Later on their faith grows quite strong, after they experience all the time with Jesus, after they witnessed the death and resurrection, then they had tremendous faith. It was the building blocks to which Christ built His church. So yes their faith grew strong, they underwent horrible trials and storms. We learn of many storms that Paul experienced, but he counted it all joy. He was one that slept through the many storms of his life, which are chronicled in Acts and his letters, and we see that Paul got wet…he got very wet in fact. As the apostles and disciples experienced more and more of Jesus, their faith grew. The same can apply to us, the more we experience Jesus, the more we are in God’s Word, the more we rely on Him in all aspects of our life; our faith will grow. With that we will not have little faith, and we will not be afraid, and we can sleep soundly. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The”NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and
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