'Where Is Your Faith?'

Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out.
But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.
And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm.
But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marvelled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
[Luke 8:22-25 NKJV]

... and there was a calm
As is always the case when Jesus is awakened by us, - when we look to Him in faith for help in the midst of the storm - there is immediate calm; raging replaced with peace. We often get in such a panic when situations get out of hand and threaten to engulf us. We quickly learn to rely on Jesus Christ to bring calm to the crisis and save us once again. We need His presence because He is 'in the same boat'. The danger is that we come to believe that He is ours to command.

'Where is your faith?'
However, instead of saying 'That's the storm sorted,' Jesus questions the disciples about their faith. They become afraid again because Jesus did not react in the way they would have expected. They did not understand Him; 'Are we not to call on You in our time of need? Who can this be? This is not the Jesus we know.'
So what did Jesus mean? Jesus took His disciples on a perilous journey and 'He fell asleep'; He was at rest amid the storm, completely at peace because He is peace, and He expects us to be filled with His peace also, when we know His presence. We must be in that place of rest with Him.

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
[Hebrews 4:1-2,9-10 NKJV]

1  Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,
to his feet your tribute bring;
ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
who like you his praise should sing?
Alleluia, alleluia!
praise the everlasting King.

2  Praise him for his grace and favour
to our fathers in distress;
praise him, still the same as ever,
slow to blame and swift to bless;
Alleluia, alleluia!
glorious in his faithfulness.

3  Father-like, he tends and spares us,
All our hopes and fears he knows;
in his hands he gently bears us,
rescues us from all our foes:
Alleluia, alleluia!
widely as his mercy flows.

4  Angels, help us to adore him;
you behold him face to face;
sun and moon, bow down before him,
praise him all in time and space.
Alleluia, alleluia!
praise with us the God of grace.

Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847) (adapted) Based on Psalm 103

---

Sunday 23rd May 2021

‘If you obey Jesus you will have a life of joy and delight.’ Well, it is not true. Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go to the other side of the lake,” and they were plunged into the biggest storm that they had ever known.
You say, ‘If I had not obeyed Jesus I should not have got into this complication.’ Exactly. The temptation is to say, ‘God could never have told me to go there, if He had done so this would never have happened.’ We discover then whether we are going to trust God’s integrity or listen to our own expressed skepticism.
[from ‘He Shall Glorify Me’]

---