Scripture
Jesus asked his disciples, “Why were you afraid? Don't you have any faith?”
Observation
Jesus and his disciples go across the lake and a severe storm blows up. It must have been a particularly bad storm for the disciples, several of whom were experienced fishermen, to be afraid.
But Jesus sleeps through it all.
The disciples are full of fear. Jesus calms the storm- what awesome power he has to still the storm with a single word.
Who is this man that the wind and sea obey him? He is the Son of God!
Application
When the boat arrives at its destination it is to allow Jesus to confront a man possessed by many demons. It is probably fair to say that the storm was a direct attack on Jesus to prevent this from happening Satan does not want to lose his power base.
Whether we are confronting demonic power directly, trying to survive a natural storm or battling our way through relational storms the good news is that Jesus is in control. He will bring us safely through the tempest.
The test is to trust Him and not our own resources, to put our faith in Him rather than fearing the process we are going through.
In the end He will still the storm. Hold onto Him until then!
Prayer
Father we face many storms in life and some of them threaten to sink our boats. But Lord with you in the boat we can trust you to bring us through. Help me Lord to remember this when things get tough. Amen.
I always thought of these as two separate stories. Good to see how they are related.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading scripture, Lois, you always have to remember that the chapter divisions aren't part of the original (nor the section headings and footnotes). We tend to separate things out too much form the context and fail to see the "big" picture.
ReplyDelete