By: Steve Wilmot
Storms are a part of life. I’m not talking about storms that involve rain and wind and lightning and thunder, though they are a part of life, too.
I’m referring to times of turmoil and sadness. Those times when we’re swamped and just trying to keep our head above water.
A divorce. A wayward child. Waiting for results of a test the doctor ordered. Getting a diagnosis that something is wrong. Unemployment. A member of the family or a friend dying too young.
Emotional issues that seem to control and color everything in life—depression, fear, worry. Sometimes it’s the accumulation of a lot of little things that you could handle individually, but together they overwhelm you.
Mark recalls a time Jesus, and his disciples were in a scary, life-threatening storm on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was asleep in the boat, apparently oblivious to the danger they were in. Because he slept through the squall, the disciples assumed he didn’t care, and they would die.
Neither assumption was correct, but they are the same conclusions we make when we’re going through storms in our life. Jesus doesn’t care, because if he did, he would have done something about it by now. Our tendency is to assume the worst.
Consider a couple of questions before we move on to what happened in the boat. Do you think Jesus knew the storm was coming?
Of course he did, yet he had his disciples get in the boat and set out across the lake. He could have waited a couple of hours until the gale died down, but he didn’t. Why?
Do you think Jesus knows the storms that are coming in your path? Of course he does, yet he lets you go through them. Why?
In every storm there are silver linings. We just need to look for them. There are lessons we can only learn in a storm.
Jesus 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!” (Mark 4.39-41).
Here are the four insights we can only see in storms.
1. Jesus cares what you’re going through. We understand only too well the disappointment expressed in the opening lines of “Praise You in This Storm” by Casting Crowns: “I was sure by now God that you would have reached down and wiped our tears away; stepped in and saved the day. But once again I say ‘amen’ and it’s still raining.”
Does Jesus care? Years after this storm, Peter urges: Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you (1 Peter 5.7). He knew firsthand that Jesus cares. As the old hymn puts it, “His heart is touched with my grief; When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.”
May that be the song of faith that rises from your heart in the middle of your storm.
2. Jesus is more powerful than any storm you go through. He not only cares, but he is able and willing to do something about it. When the disciples woke Jesus from his sleep, he quickly took care of the storm.
It’s all so matter of fact. Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was calm. No Big Deal. He didn’t even break a sweat.
Your storm is no Big Deal for Jesus to handle either! He’s BIG enough and willing enough to help you through your storm.
That doesn’t mean he will immediately calm your storm. As someone wrote, “Sometimes he calms the storm. Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.”
3. Jesus is even more than we knew before the storm. When Jesus calmed the storm with a word, the disciples asked, “Who is this guy?” These were the guys who followed Jesus for a few years and watched him do some pretty incredible things. But this incident opened their eyes wider. They saw Jesus as much Bigger than they did before the storm. It was like seeing him through a magnifying glass.
Radio Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee once said, “He puts us in the storms so that we might come closer to him and know him better.” Without a storm, you will never experience the Jesus the Bible claims he is.
4. Jesus is a man of his Word. Because he is, you can trust him to do what he says he will do. Every single time.
At the beginning of their journey across the lake, Jesus told his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side” (Mark 4.35). Though not declared, Jesus implied they would make it to the other side no matter what. Though it was rough for a time, they made it as he promised.
What does God say to you in your storms? But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear… When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Isaiah 43.1-3).
Note the words in bold. No matter how bad, scary, or never-ending your storm appears to you, Jesus will bring you through it. He is with you.
Friend, Jesus is with you in the boat, even when it seems like he’s sleeping! You will get through it. You’ll see.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.