“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be Still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
Mark 4:39
The imagery of the story surrounding this verse is incredible. The disciples are on a boat with Jesus in the middle of the sea, when a storm hits. The scripture says that waves were crashing over the side of the boat, and it was filling up with water. Everyone is panicking. That is, everyone but Jesus. By the way, where is Jesus? It says, “Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.”
What! How can he be sleeping at a time like this. The waves are crashing over the top of the boat, it’s filling up with water, if something doesn’t change soon they’re all going to drown. And Jesus is sleeping? Certainly his apostles weren’t particularly happy about it. They woke him up saying “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
They felt like Jesus was letting them down. They thought he was literally just going to sleep while they all drowned. So he gets up and does the impossible, he tells the wind and the waves to be still, and they do. The sky and the ocean obey him. All is calm. Then he says “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
The question is not why was Jesus sleeping through the storm. The question is why did they think they would die? They had been by his side as Jesus did miraculous things, yet now they lost all faith.
In our lives, we can often focus more on the wind and the waves than on the fact that Jesus is in the boat with us. He’s not worried. He’s not afraid. He’s in control. He has authority over the wind and the waves and everything else for that matter.
Don’t waste your time looking at the rough sea. Instead, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Prayer:
God,
Thank you for the scriptures and for all that we can learn from your word. I pray that you would help me to never lose my faith in trying times like the disciples in this story, but instead to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus always. I know that with him there is nothing to fear.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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