Kudos!
Mark 4:35-41 The story of how Jesus calmed the storm! Yeap, a very known Biblical story to all. Used by many in their messages and has different meanings to it. This times its about the storms of life we face, typically, as teenagers.
Wind and Wave Obey Jesus
35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
So Jesus had just finished His preaching to a multitude, and he wanted to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus and His disciples got on a boat and set sail to the other side. Half way through their wonderful cruise, a storm came in and it was terrible. The Sea of Galilee is known for waves that are as high has 10ft. While waves were that high and powerful enough to sink a boat, Jesus was in the room, with a pillow, snoozing like a baby. Imagine if you were His disciples! You'd be scared the life out of you, killer waves, lightning, rain, water, water, water, and Jesus is sleeping like He didn't care!
Being like everyone else, of course we had to wake Jesus, we didn't want to die!
The disciples called of Jesus, waked Him up, and asked Him, "Do you not care that we are about to die?"
Jesus pissed that He was woken up to such a trivial matter, went out to the front of the boat, calmed the storm at His command, and asked His disciples,"Why is your faith so little?"
Many times, I have heard this story and never understood what was it truly about. Though I understand word for word, but the meaning didn't get into me. Anyways just in case anyone has the same problem. The problem with the whole story was that, the disciples had very little faith. They didn't trust in Jesus or God that He would save them, instead they would cry why doesn't He care! God does care a lot! And Jesus questioned them why didn't they know that?
When we face our troubles, hardships, "sufferings", or storms, our faith is rarely put to use. We'd just go and ask God "Don't You care, about my financial problems, family, studies, friends, loves, relationships?"
Its bad to think that God doesn't care. God is the first and last person who cares the most. He with us always. A day will come when you leave everybody around or everybody around you leaves you and the only person left with you is God. In the storms of life, our faith is being tested, we need to know that God is with us, and that through Him, our storms are calmed and gone.
- 1.We are not exempted from the storms of life.
Because we are Christians, it doesn't mean were exempted from going through bad things. The reason why we face through these storms is because we are human! Just because we become Christians or are Christians, it does not mean we are not human. We are human and we are not different from anyone else, the only difference with everyone else is that we have God. We still have to through human hardships, because of Adam's sin, we are bound by sin, and its our nature to sin. Don't misunderstand this, its not that we are allowed to sin. No, its just that we cannot live a sinless life like Jesus. As humans, we sin period.
So we face many storms : money, bgr(boy,girl relationships), exams, life, family, death of some one close.
Jesus brings this storms. He lets them come. 2 reasons why :
- Strengthens our faith
- Show you who He is.
When we face the storms, our faith grows, and we learn more about Jesus. This causes us to be never the same. We change, change that is for the better.
Somethings in storms, we can't control : age, time, gender.
- 2. We must not fear circumstances we can't control.
Though these circumstances are real, we can decide how to respond to it. Ask Jesus for help! "How am I going to respond to it?"
Don't fly solo, you already know you can't control these things so ask Jesus to help you. Alone we are weak, but with Him we can move mountains.
- 3. Never say God does not care.
When we see God in the storm we will fear Him more than the storm. Like the disciples, after Jesus showed He could stop the storm. They were more afraid of Him than the storm that was about to kill them.
When its too big for us, trust God, speak to the storm, "Be still." Fear God more than the storm, trust in Him. It is better to die trusting God than being afraid of something that is of the world.
We can trust in Him because He is strong and mighty.
- 4.Whatever happens in life Jesus is enough!
Sidenote*
Well I hope some one got something out of this suffering series =P Its awesome la, I mean God can put it in such a way whereby suffering is explained and is talked about on another side.
It just has a good chemistry.
Thats all for this week! This coming sunday I'm on duty for main service so I'm sure theres something good up there too.
Now TO MY RAMBLINGS!
1 comment:
This helped me a lot. Especially the part about how even Christian will have to go through struggles in life, for we are human just as everyone else. Sometimes I find myself wondering, "Why would God let this be happening to me and my family?" But really, I guess He just wants us to grow more fully in Him through faith. Thank you Denzil =)
Post a Comment