This week we’re exploring a story in the Bible where Jesus is sleeping on a boat, and his disciples are terrified by a storm.  When they wake Jesus up to save them, he scolds them for being afraid and not having enough faith.

Is he suggesting they need more trust in things unseen, as many people define faith?  No way.

He wants them to have faith in things they can see – in him.  He wants them to believe that he is more than a man, but that he is God.

Look at the evidence right in this story.  He commands the wind and seas.  They go from a raging storm to nothing simply because he says so.

Who gets to do that?  A powerful man?  No.  An illusionist?  No.  Only God, who created, sustains and controls nature, could calm a raging storm.

The disciples may be coming to terms with this intellectually, they might have said before they got in the boat that Jesus was Lord, that he was the Messiah, maybe even that he was God in the flesh.

But when their life was on the line, they were afraid he couldn’t protect them from injury and death, and his boat would sink.  This incident did show their lack of faith in him.

They trust him with some things, but not everything.  But that’s exactly what Jesus looks for in a disciple, a follower.  He looks for someone who trusts him with every aspect of life – our vocational decisions, our time, our bodies, our finances, our relationships, everything.

When storms come, we will find our trust in those things is misplaced.  They can’t protect us against life’s storms, especially the scariest, death.   As we saw a couple weeks ago, there is only one foundation for life that can protect us from any storm, and it’s Jesus.

When those storms, we want him nearby, calmly resting, showing us that he has this under control.  This is comforting, yes, but it’s much more than that.  He’s showing us he is in command, he is God.

Challenge: What storms in life challenge your faith and trust in Jesus?  How can you trust him in some smaller, calmer life situations, to know he can be trusted in the scarier ones?

Meeting with a Group?  Your discussion questions are in this week’s Group Study Guide

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