Lyle's Blog

In Mathew 8:23 is the story of Jesus and his disciples entering a ship. Jesus falls asleep. A great storm arises. The disciples get scared and wake Jesus and accuse him of not caring if they perish. He in turn accuses them of having little faith. Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves and immediately there is calm. The disciples are amazed at what he did and wonder what kind of man he this. They’ve been following him around for awhile. They have seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons and yet they still haven’t comprehended who Jesus is.

He is the Son of God; they should have figured that out by now. But are we not the same way. We’ve hung around Jesus long enough. We’ve seen a few things. But do we really understand who He is? He has power over the wind and waves. In the middle of the storms of life we get scared too. But we are in the “boat” with Jesus. It may look like we’re going to perish. If we could only understand that He’s not concerned about the power of the storm, his concern is our faith.

We say we believe but when there is abundant physical evidence that we’re about to perish we feel we’re in trouble. That’s a normal reaction of the flesh.

On the cross Jesus said: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” They didn’t know they were crucifying the Son of the living God. Jesus asked his disciples why they didn’t know who he was. What could Jesus have done to shake them from their unbelief? What can he do to shake us from our unbelief? Jesus wasn’t worried about the storm. He took a nap. If He isn’t worried why should we be?

Without faith it is impossible to please God. Unbelief is sin. He can’t forgive sin that we don’t confess. Pleasing God is the whole ballgame. It’s of most importance to remember who we belong to. The wind obeys him.  We’re supposed to obey Him too. He was given all power. All just simply means all. Can he control the weather? Yes, and everything else in life. So pray and believe. He has been given all power. You can ask for anything in His name. Ask.