Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the
boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious
storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was
sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord,
save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of
little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and
the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed
and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” –
Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV)
After my husband was hit by that “man-cold”,
I heard a slight, few, dry coughs from my son last Friday night while he was
playing downstairs with his video game. That day was his usual time to get up
early and he was greeted, he said, with a deadly kiss of extremely cold air
when he went to school. Paired with the unexpected showers, the chillier the
temperature got. When he got home in the afternoon, I could see his eyes were
becoming glassy like.
I bought an organic cold syrup to
try and see if that would help with his symptoms right away. Despite getting
the annual flu shots, I didn’t expect for it to help him as much if it was just
a plain “cold”. He knew the routines from this “mommy” now. Lots of fluids and
rest. For the past weekend, he had gotten more tired but we were both grateful
that the symptoms were not as bad as they used to bother him. His appetite
picked up yesterday, the 4th day that he was ill. I requested if he
could be off from school and with a slight protest at first (he loved to study
hard), finally agreed that “mommy’s advice” would be best if he obeyed.
“Lord, thank You for always being
there for us,” my husband started his prayer on Monday morning when he had to
go back to work at the wee hours of that morning, after battling his “man-cold”
for a week.
“Please continue to give “R” (which
was me) her strength and that she wouldn’t get sick like “Kristian and I,” he
added.
He knew…We were all grateful that so
far, I hadn’t been invaded by these nasty viruses. It helped a lot that I could
keep caring for the two of them. Bombarding them with hot broths or soups,
cut-up fruits, using the over-worked toaster for their toasts and other healthy
snacks to boost their immunity.
This morning, at 1:00 something in
the morning, I found myself slightly crooked from my position on the bed that I
was so achy when I tried to change my position. An image of Jesus calming the
storm came to my memory. I knew…It was true…I knew there was an account of that
in the Bible. I found the particular story (which were the verses above).
Illnesses…Losing my battle at work
to keep my full time position by demoting me. Not getting the expected help
from the government agency that was supposed to investigate for me. Financial
needs…And I could go on and on…
I know it’s not only me going
through life’s storms. Some are light. Some are severest. To know Jesus is not
enough. We must never stop knowing the things that belong to Him more and more.
Through life’s storms, we can use those as opportunities to increase our faith,
instead of being lessened.
“Oh, you of little faith…”
I don’t want to be like that…Because
the truth is no one can weather any life’s storms without His help. His help is
available through His Word. And we can use His Word to speak to us and have
these doubts, worries, bad habits, sinful lives, and other tough storms to be rebuked by His
truth!
From my own life’s journey, how many
times has He rebuked, not the storm, but me? He doesn’t want to calm the ravaging
storms that are going on outside.
He wants to calm…always calm…the
storms in me…
