“He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”…
Matthew 8:23
We began yesterday talking about the great storm encountered by Jesus and his disciples at sea. The first strange occurrence was that as the storm raged and the boat was tossed by the tempest, the disciples, in their fear, turned to Jesus, who was remarkably asleep in the stern. Frustration and terror gripped their hearts, and the question emerged, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” The disciples, caught in the grip of fear, reveal a momentary lapse in their faith—a shift from trust to doubt. At that moment, Jesus responded with a slight rebuke and a rather puzzling question – “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?
Why are you so afraid? Wait a minute did Jesus seriously ask why they were afraid? Why shouldn’t they be? These young men literally saw their lives fading right before them into this demonic storm, of course that would scare the bravest person. Yet, Jesus felt the disciples shouldn’t have been afraid, why? Well, from the rebuke of Jesus, the reason they were afraid was because they allowed their faith to be attacked. Mark’s account put it this way “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Prior to this event, Jesus had healed the servant of a centurion without even entering the house, he moved on from there to raise a dead child back to life. These remarkable miracles provoked faith in the heart of people, and they have come to out their trust in him including these disciples. A man who could give life to the dead, surely is not about to just die on the sea. What could be worse? Jesus’ sleeping posture was supposed to be a visual lesson to the disciples about how to respond to raging storms; it’s not panic, it is rest. Clearly, Jesus wasn’t planning to respond to this storm, he could discern it to be the devil’s distraction that is not worthy of his attention. So he rested in God’s plan for his life. God’s plan was for him to die on the cross; he believed it so he knew the storm could not harm him.
The Reason we panic at every storm is because we do not have faith in God’s word. What does the word of God say concerning you? If the storm is acting contrary to God’s word, it is just a distraction. If you hold on to God’s word you will sleep instead of observing a vigil out of fear. You will eat good food instead of fasting in fear and you will rise and command the storm from a place of understanding and it will stop. All these must begin with knowing what God’s word says about you and believing it.
PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank you for showing me that the storms around me are not as powerful as I think and I might have empowered them by responding in fear rather than faith. Please help me to rest in the storm, just like you.
