“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? How is it that you 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)
Experienced fisherman were bailing water out of the boat; fear had
gripped their hearts. They were convinced that they were going to drown. How does Jesus Christ fall asleep in the
midst of a violent storm while being tossed to and fro, waves crashing over the
side, with panic all around Him? Jesus,
embracing His humanity, must have been physically exhausted from being with the
crowds teaching, preaching, and healing. But Christ, embracing His deity, was
at peace spiritually because He knew this would not be how He or the disciples
were going to perish; He was in the perfect will of His Heavenly Father.
This passage in scripture confirms that we can be in the perfect
will of our Father, following Christ in our journey, and still find ourselves
on a stormy sea. David Jeremiah, a famous preacher, has this written in the
margins of his bible: “I would rather be with Jesus in the boat than without
Him on the shore.” It is at these times of life that we learn to not look at
the waves crashing over the side of our boat, but instead look to the One who
is in the boat with us, riding the rough seas by our side. He will not abandon us in the choppy waters. He is peace in our boat which can calm the
stormy seas. “For a child will be born to
us…and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)
This is expressed in a number of ways in our lives:
SPIRITUAL PEACE: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” (Romans 5:1) Jesus reconciled
us to God by His death on the cross. He
is the only way to have true, everlasting peace with God. You cannot earn it yourself; instead, you
must believe and accept by faith that Jesus paid the penalty of sin on the
cross and forever more erased the debt owed to Him. With this comes the calm assurance that you
will be with Him forevermore.
In the Old Testament, peace offerings were one of the 5 main
Levitical offerings. The Hebrew word for
peace offerings is “zebach”, which translates “fellowship offering” or
“sacrifice of happiness.” It was a
voluntary sacrifice of thanks. Peace
offerings were always proceeded by the daily burnt offerings. “It was never offered to obtain peace, but as
a celebration of its existence. It is a
picture of the fellowship between God and the believing sinner based on the
blood sacrifices.”
(www.abideinchrist.com)
(www.abideinchrist.com)
SITUATIONAL PEACE: “Peace I leave with
you; My peace I give to you; not as
the world gives do I give to you. Do not
let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14:27) Our inner peace does not have to be dependent
upon our external circumstances. “Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace
of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
We can uplift our fears and concerns, our doubts and worries, to
our Heavenly Father through our Savior, Jesus Christ, and He will substitute
the world’s worries for His peace that passes understanding. Sometimes we have to bring these requests to
Him over and over again before we feel at rest from our troubled souls, but He
is forever patient and kind with us, and wants us to lay it all at His feet and
depend on Him.
SUSTAINING PEACE: “Let the peace of
Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be
thankful.” (Colossians 3:15) The waves may be crashing all around us—and we
may feel like we are sinking—but The Prince of Peace reigns in our hearts,
living in us through His Holy Spirit. As
our relationship with Christ deepens and expands, we can learn to trust Him no
matter what the circumstances. This is
an abiding peace that has taken hold of our mind and emotions and will not let go
because we have learned how to trust Him in all things. If we have grown in His
word and have seen Him at work in the past, then we have come to know that He
has our best at heart as He points us towards the future. “For I am confident of this very thing, that
He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6) The refiner’s fire will
be used to mold and shape us, but we can learn to trust Him by faith that He is
at work in our life and the lives around us.
This is how we learn to praise Him in all circumstances and trust Him
even more. Oh to be sure, we will still
have tears and moments of doubt, but at the core of our being we can trust in
Him. “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)
After Jesus awoke, it states in the Amplified Bible: “He got up
and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great and wonderful calm (a
perfect peaceableness).” (Matthew
8:26) Jesus, the Son of God, has the authority
and the power to calm the storm. This may be demonstrated in our earthly
lifetime over a particular circumstance: a miraculous healing, a legal matter
dropped, a marriage restored, a prodigal son returned. Just as suddenly as the
storm rose up, Christ can calm the external forces to a stillness that will
astound and amaze us and cause us to fall on our knees and praise His name.
But here is the mystery: it may be that the cancer returns, the
legal bills mount, the marriage fails, the prodigal son continues to
wander. The sea billows continue to
roll. At these times, God's power can still be on display in our lives. This is
when He can do an internal work and calm our hearts, giving us strengthened
faith because He is our Jehovah Shalom, dwelling in our hearts even though we
continue to be tossed to and fro by the fiercest of storms.
How about you? Do you believe that Jesus was simply a good
teacher? Or do you believe He is the Son
of God who has command of the crashing waves in your life? If you
have not done so, say a simple prayer and ask Him into your heart today.
Are you relying on a
superficial peace that the world promises and then snatches away (Jeremiah
6:14) or are you placing your trust in the One who can give you a deep,
abiding, peace? Confess that you have relied on the temporary things of this
world and not turned to Him, the Prince of Peace, the only One who will never
leave you or forsake you.
Are you in the midst of a
trying circumstance and are overwhelmed by the bedlam in your life? Is your boat about to capsize? If so, cry out
to Him to give you His peace that passes all understanding. Turn it over to Him and allow Him to replace
your fears with trust and hope and bolster your faith.
Have you come to experience
His deep, abiding, sustaining peace?
Then be grateful and praise His name no matter what the situation,
knowing that He loves you and cares for you beyond measure. He will not maroon you but instead bring you
safely to the other side, either in this lifetime or the next, because your
heart is anchored in the One who is your Redeemer and Saviour .
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.—C.S. Lewis