Fearful Disciples

Our pastor has a herniated disk, so he has been unable to preach the last couple of weeks. We had a guest speaker yesterday named Dan Hall. He said something, which to me, was profound, at least in the way that he said it. And since I am just going to share the Word he was preaching from and the statement, it may not be as profound to you, but it was major to me. The Scriptures called out to me in a new way – funny how the Scripture is so alive and true. I hope it speaks to you…

“Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.’ And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” Mark 6:45-52

This is what Dan said: It was the disciples who were afraid of the wind and of seeing Christ walking on the water. We all at some point have storms in our lives. In fact, my own pastor, Calvin Kelly, says often, “You are either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or about to go through a crisis.” How do you weather the storms of life?

This is what was to me profound. This is what I wrote down:
“God was doing something different to fix the problem (than what the disciples expected Him to do.) The disciples assumed He did not care because He was not doing the same things they were doing and because He was not doing what they expected Him to do.”

You see Jesus had commanded them to get into the boat and go to the other side. He then prayed, and then was going to walk across the water on ahead of them to the other side. Right before this they had witnessed Jesus feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, but their hearts were still too hard to recognize that it was only because He was the Son of God that He was able to perform a miracle to feed the 5,000. They focused on the miracle not on who He was. So in the storm, they were afraid.

In the storms of life, Lord, let me trust You and fix my eyes on You no matter what Your solution is!