What’s in Your….Boat? -
Matthew 8:23-27, CEB - When Jesus got
into a boat, his disciples followed him. A huge storm arose on the lake so that waves
were sloshing over the boat. But Jesus was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, rescue
us! We’re going to drown!” He said to
them, “Why are you afraid, you people of weak faith?” Then he got up and gave
orders to the winds and the lake, and there was a great calm. The people were
amazed and said, “What kind of person is this? Even the winds and the lake obey
him!”
Have you
ever been so tired that you could sleep through a really bad storm? A few years ago, Hurricane Irma was churning
in the Atlantic and forecast to run up the west coast of Florida. At the time, I was serving a church on an
island off . . . you guessed it . . . the west coast of Florida. Experts were concerned about the size and
intensity of this storm and the massive damage it would do. As it turned out, they were right; Irma caused
damage that is still being repaired now, years later. I too had been very worried about the storm
because it was forecast to hit our island directly. I was so worried about what would happen that
I barely slept for two days before Irma made landfall. Before the storm arrived, we evacuated the
island in a mandatory evacuation. We
went to stay in my sister-in-law’s house in Orlando. The night the storm raged across Florida, I
fell asleep and slept through the whole thing.
The storm was bad enough even in Orlando that the roof on my
sister-in-law’s house had to be replaced.
But I had become so exhausted in the days before that I literally slept
through a hurricane.
I guess
Jesus was even more tired than I was because he is sleeping though a nasty storm
in a BOAT! This is not a cruise ship; it
was more likely a fishing boat, which in those days was basically an uncovered large
rowboat. But Jesus is sleeping! Wow. I
guess He’s not worried about his safety.
Of course not! He’s the Son of God!
And this
is the point. He’s the Son of God. The Son of the One and Only Living God is in
the boat with them. I might add that he
is in the boat with them right after he’s performed a bevy of miracles that
everyone in the boat witnessed. He’s banished
diseases and cast out demons, but his disciples are really concerned about wind
and waves. Hence, Jesus’s comment about “you
people of weak faith.”
I’m the
same. My eternal future has been secured.
I, too, have witnessed miracles. I
have been blessed in unimaginable ways because of my relationship with this Jesus,
but I still find myself getting really worked up about a storm. I once lost two days sleep because of one
(see above 😉). I am
included in Jesus’s “ye of little faith” (King
James Version). But in every storm, the
Son of God was in the boat with me the whole time! My friends, we’re all in that boat. We’re going to be okay. The Son of God is in the boat and He is not
worried.
Question: Do you ever find yourself wishing God were
more worried about something that you are worried about?
Prayer: We confess God that we often are short on
faith and we lack Your perspective. We
are thankful that you respond to our cries for help anyway. Help us to know that You are in the boat with
us and that we will be okay. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Ask God to help you see your most pressing
problem right now the way God sees it.
Song:
Note the lyric in this song, “the winds and waves still know His Name.”
It Is Well - Kristene DiMarco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqo4Un2uZI
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