Are you done with life's struggles?

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Do you ever feel like your "boat" is being overwhelmed by waves?  That trials keep coming at you, threatening the very peace you long for?  That you will not make it through one more storm in life?

The Gospel of Mark (Chapter 4, Verses 35-41) draws our attention to Jesus and his disciples out in a boat when a violent squall comes up, filling their boat with water.  I guess if you are in that sort of predicament, the best person to have in your "boat" is Jesus; however, at first, it doesn't really seem like it.

Scripture tells us:

"Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion."

Asleep!  Asleep?

"They woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

How many of us have that same reaction, today, when life gets tough?  Jesus, don't you care that I don't have a job?  That my spouse is sick?  That my child is struggling?  That I am afraid? Anxious? That our country is losing its faith in you?  On and on we could go, listing all that threatens our very state of life.

We must read on to see how it all turns out.

Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind, commanding the sea to "Quiet! Be Still!"  and everything calms down.

Then Jesus asks them, "Why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?"

This caused the disciples to be "filled with great awe" and they looked at each other, wondering "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?

Two things we should remember:

1) Jesus will always respond to us when we call out to him. (Admittedly, it may look different from what we expect.)

2) Our hope is rightly placed in God who is all-powerful.

There really, truly, is no need for us to be terrified, because Jesus is always with us when we have to face the storms of life.

Never give up on him.  

Take the step and discover the faith to which he is calling you, and let yourself be filled with great awe.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com

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