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| When things are out of our control, we need to remember that they are NEVER out of God's Control. |
Last night, as I was preparing to go to sleep, I found
myself thinking of the scripture below:
When Jesus got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat
was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they
came to Him and woke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He
said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He
got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.… (Matthew
8:24-8:25)
Now don’t get me wrong – God is always speaking with us, sometimes we don’t take the time to quiet
our souls to listen to Him. (Is that the case with you? I know it is with
me). We let the worries and concerns and
fears that we have override His voice… I
felt chastised as I remembered Matthew 8:24.
The disciples had a genuine fear!
They thought their boat was going to overturn! That they would
drown! The rocking of that boat, the
covering of those waves was real and genuine and they became filled with fear. Who of us wouldn’t have??? When we experience
stormy situations in our own lives, the situation is just as real and we focus
on the physical realm because what we see is more obvious to us by our senses
than what is going on in the spiritual realm.
We are used to looking at things with our physical eyes and not with our
spiritual ones. The only way we can calm
our storm is to pray and to trust that although things come as a shock and a
surprise to us, it does not come as a surprise to God, who sees everything.
It is probably one of the hardest things to do in our
walk. It is walking BY faith and not by
sight and for me, even having been a Christian for 26 years; I still struggle
with this… This is a part of my walk with Christ that I continually have to
work on. Quite frankly, it is a trust
issue. Will I trust in myself? Or will I
trust in God?
When I was a child, I was blessed enough to be able to
attend a wonderful girls overnight Camp in New Hampshire. I remember a game we use to play as a
group. It was a game of trust. We were divided in to teams of two, one of us
would be blind folded. The blind folded
individual would have to fall backwards and trust that their partner would
catch them and not let them fall. I
believe that God would like us to trust that when we feel like we are falling,
He is there to catch us. But we have to
walk in that trust. Walk in the
knowledge that God’s promises are true.
The question becomes, “Who are you going to believe?” I think that is why He allows certain
situations to occur in our lives, because He wants us to trust Him MORE.
There are so many examples of strong men and women of faith
within our Bible. Sometimes we forget
that these stories are TRUE, these were real individuals like you and me – with
the same problems and worries and issues.
The concerns haven’t changed – the times may have but the worries and
problems remain the same. It is during
those “stormy” times in our lives that we need to gain strength from what we’ve
seen from people and situations in the past.
They are in the Bible to encourage us, give us hope and help us to
remember to look at our situations through the eyes of faith. One of the strongest examples of this is
Abraham. I read about him and pray that
God would help me to look through the eyes of any “stormy” situation I
experience in life as Abraham did.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring
be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was
as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb
was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of
God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God being fully
persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it
was credited to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:19-4:22)
The definition of faith is as follows:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
I have been thinking that looking through our lives
situations through the eyes of faith is very similar to learning a “foreign
language.” It takes concentration and
practice. Perhaps it becomes easier as
we continue to apply God’s promises to our lives. As I previously said, I have been a Christian
for 26 years. But I am 47 years
old. I have looked at things from the
worldly perspective still many more years than I have had being a Christian. It
is easy to fall back on familiar habits.
The one thing I can say, that as I have immersed myself in the Word of
God the Holy Spirit has brought forth scriptures that I have read to the
forefront of my mind during those “stormy” moments in my life. Sometimes I hear them clearly, sometimes my
fear, worries and insecurities drown them out.
The one thing that I continue to remember is that Jesus said right before
He ascended into Heaven:
“And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the
age." (Matthew 28:20)
Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. (Psalms 61:3)"Hold my hand Lord, help me to remember to keep my eyes upon you and not upon the “stormy” situations that occur in my life. Help me to remain calm and focused as you remained calm in the boat with the disciples. Help me to hold onto your Word (my promises) within my heart and to reflect upon them and hold on to them during those times when I am fearful. Please guide and direct my steps and thank you so much for never letting go of my hand. and when I am fearful and afraid, I pray you will help In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen…"
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