“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 23 The Bible, NIV, Accessed through Bible Gateway.com
In this story we see those four little words Jesus said often during his time on Earth. “You of little faith.” I can hear the exasperation in his voice as I read them.
I learned a lesson about trusting God in the middle of a storm in August when a major storm hit our community. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of trees falling all around me and headed toward Bob’s study where he was working. When I got to the living room the lights went out and I could hear the ominous low growl of thunder and see the flashes of lightning. I could also tell the wind was blowing very hard still hearing trees crashing down.
It was at that point that I had my 30 second panic, screaming and crying, sure it was tornado and that we would die. Bob finally made his way to where I was in the dark and guided me to the couch where we sat with our arms around each other and the cat on our laps riding out the storm. As a sense of calm came over me I started singing, “blessed quietness, holy quietness…” I remember how Jesus had rebuked the storm and told our storm to “cut it out.” It finally ended and we learned it was likely not a tornado but straight line winds of 120 mph. Although the area around us looked like a war zone we had no real damage.
If we trust in God storms will be calmed. So when those physical storms rage around us or internal storms rage within us let us take a few deep breaths and remember the words of Jesus to his disciples, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”
Dig a Little Deeper: How have you experienced calm in the storm?
