Jesus Came and Calmed the Storms

“On the evening of that same day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake”. So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too. Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over the boat, so that it was about to spill over with water. Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?”

Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Have you still no faith?” But they were terribly afraid and said to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”. Matt 4:35-41

Sometimes in our lives the storms come, no amount of reading, teaching, scripture, prayer, truth prepares us for the surprising storms that appear without warning. At times we are unable to stop those storms, we forget or get frozen with fear and our minds go blank. We can become angry or frightened or fear that we are losing contol, we can begin to doubt who we are in Christ, lose our faith, strength and courage as those storms seem too big to handle. Storms from screaming children, difficult people & circumstances, hostile environments, illness, worry, stress, debt, burdens etc.. that don’t seem to go away just build up. Just like the disciples realised that they were not prepared for that storm, we can also realise in the midst we are unprepared when the strong winds begin to blow and shake our home.

The disciples knew that they couldn’t quieten that storm on their own, only Jesus could still those waters. Just as the Lord quietened that storm, so he can quieten the storms in our life and within us, by his presence. We need the presence of the Lord in our lives, to nourish, sustain, help, grow, guide, hide us, bring us to rest and still the raging waters. We don’t need to react all we need to remember is to ask the Lord for his presence in our lives to quieten the storms in Jesus’ name and he will quieten down our storms and the rest we find in his presence is like soothing balm amidst the turmoil.

Love and blessings in the Lord,

Serenity

Stewardship serenitystyle © 2004