Sometimes there are things in life that seem to come out of nowhere. We don’t expect them. We don’t expect it to happen to us. We don’t expect our kids to make some of the choices that they make. We don’t expect a sickness. We don’t expect divorce. We don’t expect to lose a job. I’m sure there are more.
We just don’t expect these things.
When things like this happen in our life they can (and often do) cause us to lose focus on God. In fact, in these unexpected circumstances, we often give up on God and turn away from Him. We decide to go against Him. We start to feel that this stuff is happening to us and if God is who He says He is then why is this happening to me. It’s almost as if God doesn’t care about me. We see this very thing happen in the Bible.
In Mark 4, we see Jesus and His disciples are taking a little boat ride from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. When all of a sudden a huge storm comes up out of nowhere and threatens to capsize the boat. During all of this Jesus is sleeping and the disciples finally panic and decide to wake Him. They wake Jesus with these words - “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” [1] Jesus then got up and told the storm to stop and the disciples were amazed at all of this. [2]
Here are a few things that I want to bring out of this story....
Out of Nowhere
As I mentioned briefly at the beginning of this post, there are things that come up out of nowhere. When this happens, just like with the disciples, we start to panic and think that Jesus doesn’t care about us. This can’t be further from the truth. Jesus wants us to trust and know that He is bigger than the unexpected.
Total Control
Jesus gets up and calms the storm. He had it in control at all times even though it seemed out of control. This is what Jesus wanted His disciples to know. He even asked them “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” [3] I believe that Jesus often asks us the same question. “Do you still have no faith?” “Do you still not trust me?”
This is a good reminder for us. We need to remember that Jesus is in control. But when fear comes in and threatens our very lives we tend to forget about this very important truth.
I want to close this post with one final story. As I write this post, the Lead/Founding Pastor of my church has just started a battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and has announced that he will be stepping down as Lead Pastor effective December 1. This is definitely an unexpected things for him. But just by hearing [4] and reading his words of confidence in Jesus you know exactly where his focus is. These are some of the words he has spoken to us via email updates:
“I am home from my GCC trip to Israel, and since several of our fellow travelers spent a few days “sick” with intestinal “troubles” when we returned, I was not surprised that I was having some issues as well. Well, they continued testing me…because more tests led them to more tests. Bottom Line: The tests are indicating that I have cancer. GOD’s got this.
Don’t be afraid. All the good GOD was doing, GOD is still doing. All the Purposes GOD gave us are still GOD’s Purposes. Our mission remains! Let’s keep helping people take their next steps toward Christ together. That’s what I’ll be doing. Fear not.” [4]
I am amazed at this great man of God. All that he is going through he still is keeping his focus on Jesus and not only his focus but the people he leads focused on Jesus as well.
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[1] Mark 4:38 NLT
[2] Mark 4:35-41
[3] Mark 4:40 NIV
Last message link: https://grangerchurch.com/watch/?sapurl=LytkZTNkL2xiL21pLys5emIycngyP2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==
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