GOoD Morning
For some reason, while reading this, I was reminded of that old song, "I beg your pardon, I hever promised you a rose garden" … and those are the only words I remember from that song. But while reading this and thinking of my times at the beach when 'all of a sudden' or 'suddenly' clouds form that look so threatening and you think to yourself, time to pack up and go. Now if I am alone, I may wait to see what will happen. If I have my family with me, well, packing up is not simply grabbing my chair and running to the car, it involves chairs, blankets, umbrella's and more stuff!
But getting back to the storm, Jesus told us that in this life we would have tribulations, we will have problems, issues, things that go wrong, feelings that would get hurt but in the midst of it all, to take cheer, that He overcame it all. So to me, if He told me that He has given me all things, a huge inheritance, not just waiting for me in eternity, but here on earth, then that would mean I can overcome too. It may not 'feel' much like I am overcoming, but that is where feelings can lead us astray …. Just the fact that we at that instant turn to Him, and lean on Him, and the HS gives us the thought ' hey, I am more than a conqueror because greater is HE who is in me, than he that is in the world' that in itself is victory! Right at that moment. Does the situation or storm change suddenly? Well, sometimes it does, but more often it's a process, something to walk out and learn.
When the disciples were in the boat and suddenly a storm arose, fierce winds, waves, they – the disciples, experienced fishermen, familiar with this lake were so scared they thought they were going to die …. Then it must have crossed their minds, hey wait a sec, Jesus is here, in fact He is sleeping! In the midst of our storms, I think we too think immediately, hey, Jesus is with me, it will be okay … but then we miss it just like the disciples did. See, I think they should have gone one step further and thought to themselves, hey, if He is sleeping through this, if He is not concerned and doesn't even notice this raging storm and hear these winds blowing over and feel this boat rocking violently back and forth, why should we pay attention to this? Now I am not for one second picking on the disciples, because you see, I do the same thing and over and over. I do what they did, I start calling out to God for help. The disciples went and woke Jesus up and said, master, don't you care that we are perishing? And we read that He got up and said peace be still! AND immediately, the storm stopped.
Don't you wish all the storms in your life would stop like that? Jesus in this instance caused an immediate result – the storm stopped. Did He then go back to sleep? Did He give them a course on faith? He talked about faith and asked why they didn't have any. In storms yes we need to run to Jesus, because He tells us that He cares and that He will help us .. but I believe He also wants us to in the midst of the storm, stop and 'be still and know' that He is God .. He can do anything in your life …. To stop and remember, hey, I have faith … even if it is the size of a mustard seed, I have faith, He will strengthen me, He will help me.
blessings, Elaine
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