Calm Your Own Storm

Jesus Sleeping in the boat

Matthew 8:23-27
23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. 25 And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” 26 He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. 27 The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

As we read this story, we can draw many different perspectives from it. Which one sticks out most in your mind? Is it that Jesus was sleeping at the bottom of a boat being tossed around by a storm? Is it His rebuke of the disciples that had little faith? Is it His power over nature? Is it the comparison of Jesus’ power over the storms in our own life?

Jesus wasn’t afraid.
Jesus was calmly sleeping because He knew that He was in the hands of God the Father. Even though the turbulence around Him indicated otherwise, His faith and trust was in God and He knew that whether His fate was to be killed by the storm or ride it out and be ok, there was nothing He could do to save Himself against God’s will. How often do we freak out in situations like this and forget that God has the whole world in His hands?

Our lack of faith.
How often does Jesus have to rebuke our lack of faith? Do we have to rebuke ourselves from time to time because of our lack of faith? Maybe an accountability partner reveals to you your lack of faith. Too often we instantly think of the worst instead of the best. Maybe it is because our society thrives on bad news, but we have grown accustomed to fearing the worst instead of hoping for the best. Hebrews 11 tells us that:

1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Jesus’ power over nature.
Jesus calming the storm seems unbelievable to us and was unbelievable to the disciples. Even in talking about miracles and God’s work through us, we never talk about doing stuff like this. Yet in Matthew 17 we read Jesus saying:

20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

Why then is this something that seems impossible to us? Jesus’ faith was able to calm the sea and so can ours if we believe it is possible.

The storms of our life.
Usually when we read this story we think of Jesus’ power over the storms in our life. Yes, He has the power to fill us with peace and tell our hearts, “be still.” But this story goes beyond that. If our faith can literally move mountains from one spot to another, why can’t our faith tell our hearts to be still and calm the storms in our life? Yes, we need the power of the Holy Spirit, but if the Holy Spirit is within us, then we have no excuse! We have to get better at speaking peace over our own lives.

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