The Tempest

The front door of our home faces due east.  This morning I was met with a 20 mph gusty wind directly in my face when I opened the door to leave.  Ah, a tempest I thought.  As I looked at and settled into it, I became aware of how long it has been since we’ve had a hurricane or any significant storm of any kind.  How quickly we forget.

“And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.  Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’  But He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” – Matthew 8:24-26

I find it hard to reach the place where God wanted these men to be.  One, they were with Him.  They had Him in their boat.  Two, they were where He wanted them to be.  He said go across the sea and they were trying to cross the sea.  Three, when they were perishing, about to drown and sink, they called out to Him.  Which of these is wrong?

We want God with us.  We want to walk with Him.  We want to go where He says go and we want to rely only upon Him as our Help.  He must save us and nothing else.  These all sound good to me.  Yet, Jesus said “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” 

Consider the points again.  God was with them.  God is with us.  His Spirit is alive within us.  They were doing exactly what He told them to do.  They were where He wanted them to be.  Are we where God wants us to be?  Are we doing what God told us to do?  He has written a lot of Words.  Do we believe what they say and do them?

If we have God with us and we are exactly where God wants us to be, then Jesus’ question to us is, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”  The point to ponder is, what is the faith test here?  Haven’t we already passed the faith test by believing in Him (putting Him in our boat) and traveling where He told us to go?  Absolutely, these are important facets of faith, but faith has many, many layers.  Some layers can’t be reached until others have been crossed.  

Further, wasn’t our faith more evidenced by our calling upon Him in our trouble?  Absolutely not.  Everyone, even the person with the smallest or even absence of faith reaches out for anything when they are drowning.  Calling upon God in our times of trouble does not measure our depth of faith.  However, we do gain faith greatly once we are rescued in our rescuer.  (There is another lesson here.)

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” – John 14:1

If you have God within you and you are where He has led you, do you believe it is for your undoing and harm?  The faith answer is no.  Wherever it is that I am where He has led me as He walks before me is exactly where I need to be, whether it is in a tempest and I am drowning or not.  Maybe the best thing He has for me is to perish.  I don’t like the idea, but if He is with me and has led me there, then that is the best thing for me.  I must trust that; I must have faith in Him and Him alone.  I find this thinking to be very hard to reach.

It is so difficult to walk in a storm and take your senses off the storm and focus solely on Jesus.  There is a strong wind carrying rain and waves blowing across you.  The water covers you and is blown into your eyes so much you have trouble seeing.  The howling of the wind across your ears is so loud you can hardly hear.  The boat floor is moving so much you can barely hold on well enough to stand, if you can stand at all.  You feel the wetness soaking through your clothes all across your body.  YET, you have Jesus with you and you are where He said to be. 

Do you focus on your senses in this world or do you have confidence in that you are completely settled into where and what He has for you, even if it is a storm?  

We must have God with us and be doing what He told us to do, before we can not be troubled and believe in His Words as best for us, no matter how hard the wind blows.