DON’T FREEZE UP

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:35-41)

This is a pretty familiar story, & variations of it are repeated several times throughout the Gospels. The disciples may have had at least a couple of similar experiences like this during Jesus’ 3-year ministry.

When Jesus scolded the disciples about having no faith, was He referring to their waking Him up while He was sleeping (He’d had a pretty long & intense day of ministry), or for how the whole group of them just froze & couldn’t do anything? Or was it about their whole lame response to the storm even though they had witnessed His authority to deal with all kinds of challenges?

He was able to sleep thru the storm, to the extent that they had to wake Him up. He was also able to calm it. Then, after He dealt with what the thing they feared, they were even more afraid when He questioned them about their lack of faith.

The thing I took from this story today is that Jesus demonstrated 2 vital ways of expressing our faith. The first is the ability to have peace (enough to apparently be oblivious to the power of the storm) in the midst of a life-threatening situation. The second is that when awakened, He immediately & authoritatively dealt with the situation.

Maybe He could do the second because He knew how to do the first. 

Let’s commit ourselves to no longer get rattled & freeze up in situations because we haven’t allowed God’s peace to fill us. Let’s be prepared spiritually & as much as possible in practical ways. That way we can have control of our emotions, we can see what may need to be done, & we can do it. All with the conviction that the Lord is in control of the whole process.