03 May Jesus’ People Have Storms
Life is filled with storms–financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, relational etc. In a storm, you become exhausted and overwhelmed. In a storm, you can become so overwhelmed by the crisis that you lose sight of Christ.
What storms have you been in? Are you in a storm right now?
In John 6:18-19 we read about Jesus’ disciples battling a storm all night fighting to survive, “The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing…they had rowed about three or four miles…”
From this scene, we learn four things about the storms Jesus’ people have:
- Storms will come. No matter how prepared you are, the future is out of your control and clouds invariably roll in bringing dark and stormy days.
- Storms often blow us off course. For the disciples, despite rowing feverishly all night the storm had blown them off course and they were adrift in the darkness. The same is true in our lives: difficult seasons can get us off course and in a place where we never intended to be.
- Some storms are beyond our ability to navigate. In this storm, many of the disciples were fisherman who—despite rowing all night—lost their battle. In life, the same is true for us all. There are simply situations that no matter how hard we try, we lose.
- Fear is about our circumstances; faith is about the Lord over our circumstances. After they had done all they could, Jesus walked on water and said to them, “Do not be afraid”.
The bottom line in a storm is that you either live by fear or faith. Fear is such a regular part of our life that the command to “Fear not.” is repeated in our Bible more often than any other command. Why? Because, storms happen all the time and we get scared, anxious, and afraid. The solution to fear is in faith—trusting that Jesus is coming into your storm just as He came to save the disciples in their storm.
How has fear caused you to make bad decisions? How can faith today help you make wise decisions in a storm?
