Calming Lessons from a Story Sea

Mark 4:35-41

In this scripture from Mark we see the description of one miracle of Jesus you might already be familiar with, but by looking closer we can discover a new perspective on this well-known story.

One evening Jesus and his disciples were travelling by boat when a sudden and powerful storm blew up and tossed their boat. Jesus was asleep in the stern and his disciples woke Him in fear to ask Him, “don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus awoke, commanded the storm to calm, and it obeyed. Jesus then turned to His disciples and asked, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Learning the principles behind this story is key to understanding Jesus’s influence in your life.

Just because Jesus is with you, doesn’t mean you are exempt from the storms of life. When you remember the most difficult times in your life and think wonder where Jesus was, know that just as he was in these verses, He was at peace at the stern of the boat.

No storm in your life will take Jesus away from you. You may feel otherwise—your emotions may tell you that God has deserted you, but God is with you during all your storms, even if it may seem like He absent or unaware.

Some of the questions we ask God assume the worst instead of expecting the best. The disciples were incorrect to be worried about drowning, because God works for our good in all things. So instead, ask God, “What are you teaching me through these storms?”

There is nothing God cannot control in your life. Don’t think of God’s domain to be separate or individual to Him; He can work through even the worst of circumstances and enact His plan through tragedies as well as joys.

God refines our faith mostly in times of storms, not the calm. The purpose of refining faith is to draw you closer to the one in whom you place your faith. God allows storms to fulfill a specific purpose of refining faith because it is only in deeper faith that you have deeper joy.

This service was streamed live to Facebook on September 29, 2019.
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