He'll Calm Your Storm!
I'm doing the following for a devotion for my job, let me know what you think.
Jesus Calms the Storm:
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Our text is one of a handful of stories we have about Jesus at a lake. Our vision statement at Camp Okoboji is Jesus at the Lake. As a program staff, we thought it would be very fitting to use stories from the Bible of Jesus at the Lake.
While the disciples and Jesus were crossing the Sea of Galilee a really big storm came up and the disciples became very afraid, all the while Jesus remains asleep on His pad. It must have been a pretty terrible storm, many of the disciples had been fishermen so they were very used to life on the water and probably the storms on the Sea of Galilee, but this storm must have been different, particularly bad.
The disciples woke Jesus up, asking Him if He even cared if they drowned. The disciples probably didn’t need to wake Jesus up, they probably would have made it across the lake, but instead of trusting Jesus’ power, they doubted. They actually asked Jesus if He even cared whether or not they drowned.
After the disciples woke Jesus up, He told the wind and the waves to be still, calming the storm, and making it stop. Jesus had done other miracles around the disciples and he had just healed many people, which the disciples had also witnessed. So when Jesus calms the storm, He says to the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Jesus had already shown the disciples that He was no ordinary man, but that He had power. But the disciples doubted His power, even after seeing it shown in the healings. Even after Jesus asked them why they still don’t have faith, the disciples were still terrified and doubted even more. The disciples asked, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” That question was probably rhetorical, an answer wasn’t necessary at the time, the question was probably more for an effect. If we were to answer the question of “Who is this?” the only answer we can consider is that Jesus is the very Son of God. Jesus is God. So in this miracle, Jesus was demonstrating God’s very power and presence. Jesus performed the miracles that He did to increase the faith of the disciples in Him that He was the Son of God and that His authority was that of God’s and that He had control over all of creation.
The disciples had not seen that yet, they still doubted Jesus’ power. That is why Jesus had to ask them, “Do you still have no faith?” But Jesus helped them, He calmed the storm. He showed them that He was in control and there was nothing that He couldn’t handle, all things were under His dominion.
How often is it that we doubt God’s power. We know that God is with us, now and forever and wherever we go, He is omnipresent, or present everywhere. We have all had storms of our own, and many of us have probably faced storms that we thought would surely be the end of us, they were too much, and we would drown. We doubt that God will take care of us, that He will deliver us.
But we can remember that just as Jesus answered the disciples call for help, He will for us too, and there will be nothing that we can bring before Him that He can not help us with, no storm will be too big. We can trust that we can seek His help during life’s storms and He will answer our cry for help.
In the course of the storm the disciples were terrified that they doubted Jesus’ power, so they cried out to Jesus to help them, but He already had control over the storm, whether it was raging or was still, but Jesus had compassion on the disciples, He called the storm. He used that opportunity to strengthen the faith of the disciples. God has control over all of our storms whether we think He does or not. After our storms have calmed, we are able to look back on those times and see how God was able to use that time to increase our faith, and to grow our trust in Him. We can look back and see how God was there the entire time, whether we doubted or not, or sleeping on a cushion and not caring and forgetting about us, those are the times that help our faith grow. Because we kmnow that storms come and go, in this story a sotm came up quickly and left quickly, something remains the same, and that is the salvation that is in Christ’s death and resurrection. The promise received in our baptism is not any different than today. When we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will never die but live eternally. It is the grace of God that gives us peace, even in the midst of the storms we face.
In Christ,
Adam
Jesus Calms the Storm:
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Our text is one of a handful of stories we have about Jesus at a lake. Our vision statement at Camp Okoboji is Jesus at the Lake. As a program staff, we thought it would be very fitting to use stories from the Bible of Jesus at the Lake.
While the disciples and Jesus were crossing the Sea of Galilee a really big storm came up and the disciples became very afraid, all the while Jesus remains asleep on His pad. It must have been a pretty terrible storm, many of the disciples had been fishermen so they were very used to life on the water and probably the storms on the Sea of Galilee, but this storm must have been different, particularly bad.
The disciples woke Jesus up, asking Him if He even cared if they drowned. The disciples probably didn’t need to wake Jesus up, they probably would have made it across the lake, but instead of trusting Jesus’ power, they doubted. They actually asked Jesus if He even cared whether or not they drowned.
After the disciples woke Jesus up, He told the wind and the waves to be still, calming the storm, and making it stop. Jesus had done other miracles around the disciples and he had just healed many people, which the disciples had also witnessed. So when Jesus calms the storm, He says to the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Jesus had already shown the disciples that He was no ordinary man, but that He had power. But the disciples doubted His power, even after seeing it shown in the healings. Even after Jesus asked them why they still don’t have faith, the disciples were still terrified and doubted even more. The disciples asked, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” That question was probably rhetorical, an answer wasn’t necessary at the time, the question was probably more for an effect. If we were to answer the question of “Who is this?” the only answer we can consider is that Jesus is the very Son of God. Jesus is God. So in this miracle, Jesus was demonstrating God’s very power and presence. Jesus performed the miracles that He did to increase the faith of the disciples in Him that He was the Son of God and that His authority was that of God’s and that He had control over all of creation.
The disciples had not seen that yet, they still doubted Jesus’ power. That is why Jesus had to ask them, “Do you still have no faith?” But Jesus helped them, He calmed the storm. He showed them that He was in control and there was nothing that He couldn’t handle, all things were under His dominion.
How often is it that we doubt God’s power. We know that God is with us, now and forever and wherever we go, He is omnipresent, or present everywhere. We have all had storms of our own, and many of us have probably faced storms that we thought would surely be the end of us, they were too much, and we would drown. We doubt that God will take care of us, that He will deliver us.
But we can remember that just as Jesus answered the disciples call for help, He will for us too, and there will be nothing that we can bring before Him that He can not help us with, no storm will be too big. We can trust that we can seek His help during life’s storms and He will answer our cry for help.
In the course of the storm the disciples were terrified that they doubted Jesus’ power, so they cried out to Jesus to help them, but He already had control over the storm, whether it was raging or was still, but Jesus had compassion on the disciples, He called the storm. He used that opportunity to strengthen the faith of the disciples. God has control over all of our storms whether we think He does or not. After our storms have calmed, we are able to look back on those times and see how God was able to use that time to increase our faith, and to grow our trust in Him. We can look back and see how God was there the entire time, whether we doubted or not, or sleeping on a cushion and not caring and forgetting about us, those are the times that help our faith grow. Because we kmnow that storms come and go, in this story a sotm came up quickly and left quickly, something remains the same, and that is the salvation that is in Christ’s death and resurrection. The promise received in our baptism is not any different than today. When we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will never die but live eternally. It is the grace of God that gives us peace, even in the midst of the storms we face.
In Christ,
Adam
posted by Adam | 9:30 PM
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2 comments
