Mark 8:37- 41 (KJV)
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? 41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Why did Jesus rebuke His Disciples for not having faith? He expected them to do what He did; to command the wind to stop. I experienced this awhile back at our subdivision; Hearthstone Hills.
The weather report urged everyone put everything away that could be blown out of the yard. Winds were expected to be in the high thirties. Sharon did batten down everything on the patio before I decided to follow Jesus’ example. So, I did what Jesus would have done and in Jesus’ name I commanded the winds to steer clear of Hearthstone Hills.
I watched the dark wind clouds as they avoided us and even most of the SE side of Tucson. It looked like the clouds were afraid to come near us. Nothing blew away nor did the wind harm anything in Hearthstone Hills. I do not have the power in myself but Jesus does and I just did what He would have done had He been here in person.
Here is an important point: Jesus was sleeping on a pillow on a boat, first of all because that’s about the only place he could get any sleep because of the crowds. Even in this story it says there were other boats following Him supposedly because they wanted to see what He would do next.
The other point is that Jesus said at the beginning of this trip “Let’s go to the other side”; He fully expected to get there so He decided to take a nap. He knew His Father would protect Him no matter what storms blew up. Then again He probably took up His pillow and went back to sleep after He calmed the storm.
The main lesson for us is to not let the “Storms of Life” hinder us from doing what the Lord has commanded us to do. We can calm the storms by listening to and doing what Jesus tells us to do.
Hal E. Mitchell