He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet!” Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39
David cried plaintively, “May God arise, may his enemies be scattered” (Psalm 68:1).
It is certainly what we cry when we want our circumstances changed—“Arise, O Lord. Can’t You do something about my situation?”
In Mark’s story of the storm at sea, the disciples cried out and the Lord did arise. He got up. The urgent shaking and pleading of the disciples to “wake up” stirred Him from His slumber. “We’re swamped!” they said. Isn’t that how you feel on occasion? God is sleeping and you are screaming! The eternal and universal lesson, however, is that He always hears. He always gets up—although sometimes we are disappointed by His inaction or surprised at His action.
The disciples were surprised. It is completely logical to believe that all they wanted was for Jesus to help them bail water out of the boat. They had never seen Him calm a storm. I doubt their faith had grown mature enough to think that if He could heal a paralytic, He could also calm a storm.
If ever a miracle showed Jesus as Creator, this one certainly qualifies. He who spoke the universe into existence commanded the elements with His voice. I can’t get my own dog to obey me—let alone wind and waves. But there’s a receptor in nature that knows and responds to the voice of the Master.
No storm lasts forever, and no storm blows at the same time over all the earth. All storms are limited both by geography and duration. But when they come, it is with ferocity and surprise.
Our problem is that we don’t feel we can outlast our own localized storm, whether illness, abandonment, financial reverses, loss of a job or a friend, or the death of a loved one. That’s surely how the disciples and those in the boats nearby felt—they were going to perish before the storm ended.
On a normal night, conversation can flow freely across the water boat to boat, but not in a storm. That’s life. On calm days relationships flow freely, and we stay in easy communication with those around us. Yet, in storms, the words blow back in our faces, and we feel that it is useless to even try to communicate. The fury of the moment deafens all speech and hearing.
Jesus spoke. The winds and waves ceased. The older translations put it better, “Peace, be still!” Would that all storms in life ended as quickly! But they don’t. Look at another storm, one of hurricane force that raged for two weeks. It’s recorded in Acts 27. In the end, the ship wrecked and cast the apostle Paul onto the beach. Why is one storm quieted and not the other? We may never figure out the answer this side of heaven.
But the Lord can give us peace from the storm or peace in the storm. You can have His peace no matter what the circumstance. The apostle Paul, writing from prison to the Philippians, assures us that peace is available at all times: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7).
A Prayer: Help me, Lord Jesus, to know that I can trust fully in You. There is no storm that outlasts You, and You will either make my storm subside or carry me safely through it.
Excerpted from Dr. Wood’s forthcoming book, Fearless: How Jesus Changes Everything, available in September from Vital Resources.
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