Jesus is Present in the Storm

Pause:

Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.

Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.

Read:

Matthew 14 v 22 – 33: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Going Deeper:

For many of us 2020 has been a year filled with many different things that could cause fear to grow and dwell in our hearts. We might at this time find that our hearts and minds are crippled with worries, concerns and anxiety for our lives, with our faith and trust in God being tested like never before.

We might find ourselves tired and exhausted by the thoughts circling in our minds throughout the day and perhaps even at night as we mull over the difficulties, disappointments and impossibilities we are faced with.

Living in this chaotic world, as we face the storms of life, it can be so easy for us to forget the promises and faithfulness of our God. It can be hard to live in faith in the midst of so much fear.

In Matthew 14, we see that the disciples find themselves in a very similar situation as they are faced with a storm that threatens their very existence.

To give this storm some context, in the same account of this story in the Gospel of Mark it says that Jesus saw the disciples on the Sea of Galilee straining at the oars because the wind was against them. That use of the word straining, in the original Greek, is translated as the word torture. The disciples rowing was slow and brutal, relentless and hard, and it was basically tantamount to torture as they found themselves in a boat fighting for their lives.

Isn’t this exactly what life can feel like sometimes? Relentless, brutal and hard. Storms come and seemingly hit us out of nowhere filling us with dread, causing us to strain as we work our hardest to keep our head above the water.

It’s hard to have faith in these moments, and if you are anything like me, you might find it hard not to freak out as worry and fear flood your mind. You might find it hard not to question whether God is really there with you, or if he even cares and is truly good.

But we see in this story that God is not indifferent to our situations. That he is not far off, or aloof, or numb to our fear and suffering but that he is in fact there with us from start to finish. He is there with us calling out to us to come to him in the storm.

This story in Matthew is an invitation to us all to trust God with our lives even in the chaos of life when we feel that we are sinking and can’t face the troubles surrounding us. To fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.

To trust God with our lives doesn’t mean that things will always go a 100% the way we would like them to, but it is to believe that no matter what happens that God is a good God who is always right there with us. Our trust and our faith is not so much in a God who will deliver us from all the storms in our lives, although he can and often does, but our faith rather is in a God who is with us through all the storms.

As we look to Jesus in our own storms, fixing our eyes on Him, we can trust that he will be right there with us reaching out his hand to us, a secure and steady anchor for our lives.

Pray:

Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to your from this passage this morning.

Listen:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Apply:

What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?