Good morning,
Praise the Lord for another glorious day in the Kingdom of Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord blessed us with beautiful mid-week study and fellowship yesterday evening. We looked at Mathew 14, " Sensing the presence of Jesus in the midst of the storm".
A preacher tells a story entitled "Enough is Enough". The central figure of the story is a person who accepted everything that happens as manifestations of divine power. He said, "It is not for me to question the workings of divine providence." All his life, misfortune had been his. Yet never once did he complain. He got married and his wife ran away with the hired man. His daughter was deceived by a villain. His son was lynched. A fire burned down his barn. A cyclone blew away his home. A hail storm destroyed his crops, and the banker foreclosed on his mortgage, taking his farm. Yet, at each stroke of misfortune, he knelt and gave thanks to God Almighty for his unchangeable mercy. After a time, penniless but still submissive to God, he landed in the county poorhouse. One day the overseer sent him out to plow a potato field. A thunderstorm was passing over when, without warning, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky. It melted the plowshare, stripped most of his clothing from him, singed off his beard, branded his naked back with the initials of a neighboring cattleman, and hurled him through a barbed wire fence. When he recovered consciousness, he got up slowly on his knees, clasped his hands, raised his eye toward heaven and, then, for the first time in his life, asserted himself and said, "Lord, this is getting plumb ridiculous."
Have you been there? Haven’t we all, at one time or another, felt that we had more than our fair share? Every one of us has dreams blown away. Every once in a while we back up and say, "Why am I being hit with this storm of life?" Sometimes these storms are caused by the devil, sometimes by other people, and sometimes by us. Sometimes they’re allowed by the Lord. They come from different sources, but they do have a purpose in our life.
Matthew 14, beginning with verse 22, "Right away Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake, but he stayed until he had sent the crowds away. Then he went up on a mountain where he could be alone and pray. Later that evening he was still there. By this time the boat was a long way from the shore. It was going against the wind and was being tossed around by the waves. A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples and when they saw him, they thought he was a ghost and they were terrified and started screaming. At once Jesus said to them, "Don’t worry, I am Jesus. Don’t be afraid." Peter replied, "Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water." "Come on," Jesus said.
Peter then got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward him, but when Peter saw how strong the wind was, he was afraid and started sinking. "Lord, save me!," he shouted. Right away Jesus reached out his hand. He helped Peter up and said, "You surely don’t have much faith. Why do you doubt?" When Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind died down. The men in the boat worshiped Jesus and said, "You really are the Son of God."
Some storms in our lives come because we are out of God’s will. An example of that, of course, is Jonah, who deliberately disobeyed God’s will according to the Bible. God sent a great wind when he was out on the boat. Another perfect example is in Acts 5, as Ananias and Sapphira deliberately lied to God and the Church concerning their giving, and they lost their lives. Perhaps the storm you encounter today could be caused by some disobedience.
Some storms, however, come because we are in God’s will. A storm in your life does not mean necessarily that you are out of the will of the Lord or willfully disobeying him. In fact, there are beautiful examples in the story in Matthew. "Right away, Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake. . .He prevailed upon his disciples to get into the boat." In other words, the disciples found themselves out in the middle of a lake in the midst of a terrible storm. They were fishermen, yet they were still afraid. It had to be a bad storm.
Ironically they were out in the midst of the storm because Jesus told them to get in the boat and go out in the middle of the lake. They were right in the middle of God’s will but having the storm of their lives.
Job, of course, is another perfect example of facing extreme trials while living in the center of God's will. We know that when Satan came to God concerning what was happening on earth, that God challenged him and said, "Look at Job; he’s a perfect man." We know all about the boils head to toe on Job as he sat on an ash heap. Had he sinned against God. The Scriptures record that he was faithful beyond all men. He was a godly man in God’s sight and yet he was going through Yet, we see that Joseph was sold into slavery and taken into Egypt where he spent years in prison after being slandered by the wife of Potiphar, his owner. Joseph, though in a very difficult time of his life, was in the center of God’s will.
The Apostle Paul is a another example. Paul, who has gone through a shipwreck, was beaten. Paul eventually died a martyr’s death though he was a man of God, one of the great men in the history of the Christian church. He was in the center of God’s will. It is possible for any of us to be obedient to God, walking in the light, living in the center of God’s will, and yet at the same time encounter a terrific storm.
There are many wonderful people who really do love God and who really do obey Him yet, because of life’s uncertainties and the sin of the earth, life gives them a tough blow. When we encounter such a difficult time we need our feet on the ground and understand that storms happen even to people in the will of God. During the storms of life, God is not distant or aloof, but He enters into our storm and walks with us through it. Look at verse 25, "A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples." Jesus came to them at their darkest hour and he will do the same thing for us.
The Bible says it was 3 AM when Jesus came. We know that the darkest hour of the night is right before the dawn, a little while right before the morning. There is a hymn "Just When I Need Him, Jesus Is Near. Just when I falter, just when I fear. Ready to help me, ready to cheer. Just when I need Him most." He walks into the storms of life at our darkest hour, when we are the most needy. He saw everything the disciples encountered and knew exactly where they where. He saw their fears and He heard their cries, But He did not come to them until the hour was the darkest.
He comes to give victory over our greatest fears. He came to the disciples, walking on the very thing that frightened them. They worried about the waves as the boat tossed back and forth. They were afraid that they were going to drown or that the boat would capsize. They looked at those high waves coming over the sides of that boat, bailing water as fast as they can. These fishermen, though they had been on the water all their life, were scared to death. The waves came on and on yet, suddenly, he came walking to them on the very thing that brought fear to their hearts. He had conquered the wind and the waves.
In His quiet, majestic way, as walked on the water, it was as if Jesus was saying, "Guys, the thing that is the greatest storm in your life, I keep under my feet." If you are sick, He comes walking on your sickness. If you are afraid of death, He comes walking on the waves of death, as He did on Easter. "Oh, death where is thy sting? Oh, grave where is thy victory?" He still comes walking. All is well.
In Him,
Brown
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_EfDqF7YI
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