Remember the story where Jesus had just preached to the crowds and fed 5000? And afterwards He was quite tired, (as anyone would be!) so He took a nap on the boat while a few of His disciples (all former fisherman) steered the boat across the water to the next shoreline. Now a storm came up, and freaked them all out...guys these men were older fishermen, how many storms have they seen? It must have been bad to scare them! But somehow, Jesus was sleeping right through it. Let's pick up here:
Matthew 8:23-27 (also in mark and Luke!)
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
26 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.
If the DISCIPLES of all people can have a little lapse in faith and judgement, and be standing ten feet away from the literal, miracle performing, son of God, Jesus himself and STILL afraid they would sink in the storm..don't be too hard on yourself about having those days where it's hard to believe 100% all the time. It happens. What's important is that we remember to stop those fearful thoughts, that we crush those seeds of doubt.
We need to have faith that if we are on the boat with Jesus (metaphor for life here) we won't sink, we will weather the storm. You might get a little wet and seasick along the way, you might lose some cargo when a wave hits your boat, but you're not gonna drown.
Instead we need to be like Jesus and rest in the storm. Let God handle it!
Over and over in the Bible God says to trust His plans. The next time you're on your boat and being rocked by a storm and are doubting, stop fighting the seas. Let go of the sails, get on your knees and pray/praise, let God steer your ship through the storm. I know it's hard, but the more we do it, the better we get at it.
****
I've been meaning to write this one for awhile, it's been sitting on my " idea/concepts to write" list for several months lol. But this mental image of Jesus napping through a storm has gotten me through some rough times in life! What about you?
YOU ARE READING
Volume 2
Spiritual*completed* Here we go with round 2...me writing down my personal revelations and "aha!" moments to help encourage and hopefully help or uplift you. All comments, questions, prayer requests, topic suggestions, and constructive criticism are welcome!
