As he got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.  Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves.  But He was sleeping.  So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are going to die!”
But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.
The men were amazed and asked,  “What kind of man is this?-even the winds and the sea obey him!”
Matthew 8:23-27  HCSB

Louisiana is blessed to have some beautiful waterways.  I was blessed to live, for about four years, along a canal that connected me to a couple of beautiful rivers and one of those rivers brought me into Lake Maurepas.  I spent a lot of time out on the water during that time in my life.  I loved the beauty of the waterways and the cypress trees.  There were egrets and alligators that added to the natural beauty of the area.

But there was a time or two that I went out across Lake Maurepas and got caught up in a storm.  In a small boat, that can be a scary experience.  My cousin, Danny, had grown up down there and is a very skilled boatsman.  No matter how bad the situation got while I was boating with him, I trusted him to get me home safely.  I knew that he knew what he was doing.

In this scripture passage, the disciples have Jesus Christ in the boat with them.  Yet, they are terrified and are sure that they are going to all drown.  Now it says that Jesus is sleeping in the boat.  Perhaps they worried that when He was sleeping, He was not in control.  Now we need to remember that when Jesus walked this earth he was 100 per cent man and 100 per cent God.  This is a hard concept to wrap our heads around, so imagine what the disciples must have thought. They have seen him perform miracles and heal many people.  Now they think He is just going to sleep in the boat while it capsizes and they all drown?  Now the first thing Jesus says when they wake him is “You of little faith”.

When we find ourselves in the midst of a violent storm and we start to freak out, we show a lack of faith.  We can’t be fearful and faithful at the same time, as the two contradict each other.  So when we are in the midst of the storm we must choose whether we are going to be faithful or fearful.

I can tell you from personal experience that fearful gets me sleepless nights, days wrought with anxiety, all the types of physical ailments that accompany stress, which for me is migraine headaches and upset stomach.  It’s not pretty.

However, when I choose to be faithful, I give all that worry stuff over to God.  You see I know that no matter how bad the storm is that He can calm it.  The other great thing is that when I turn loose of my fear and anxiety, He gets to work.  And let me tell you something, I have seen God do a work in my troubles that I liken to Him parting the Red Sea for Moses.  That is awesome to watch.  If you want to see Him calm your storm, you have to do two things.  First, you have to trust in Him and secondly you have to give it over to Him completely.  Don’t try to fix it yourself, you’ll just make a mess of things.  Trust me I know from experience.

My prayer for you today is that you have the faith it takes to trust in God to calm whatever storm you may be facing.

Have a great day!