‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’
Good Morning Friends,
Yesterday’s prayer time at Lake Trafford in Immokalee prompts today’s devotional about Jesus’ teaching around the Sea of Galilee. It is a short course in metrology, geography, human behavior and the power of God. The setting is the Sea of Galilee which lies 680 feet below sea level. It is bounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air. Storms result from differences in temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains beyond. In contrast, directly around the sea, the climate is semi-tropical with warm, moist air…not unlike Immokalee in that regard. The large difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes at the Sea of Galilee. Immokalee gets thunderstorms and an occasional Hurricane because Florida, though relatively flat, is surrounded by water which also creates pressure changes. The Sea of Galilee gets strong winds dropping to the sea, funneling through the hills. The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds may descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise quickly and without warning. Small boats caught out on the sea are in immediate danger. The relative shallow depth of the Sea of Galilee makes it even more violent than a similar wind on a deep ocean where energy is more readily absorbed. Such is the nature of physical storms. But emotional storms and spiritual storms are not all that different. But now you know that, so ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’
Scripture: 4035On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV)
17After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people,* to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. 6 ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that* you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,* so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.*
14I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.*
16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,* so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
John 17 (NRSV)
Message: During the storms of life do not be surprised by fear. But also know that we are to have faith in the calm of the Creator. The story and the storm are like human behavior. Angry and lustful hearts are like troubled seas. Society is a storm in the face of inequality and economic pressures. And in the midst of the lesson the teacher Christ was asleep in the storm! You have got to wonder what he was dreaming about. He had had one busy day. And here He is testing the faith of his disciples asking …Why are you so fearful? I think Jesus is leading them to prayer and preparing them to understand His prayer for them in John 17 and then they fall asleep. Still Jesus prays that they…we… would have faith, continued fellowship, and produce fruits in the face of fear. Yes Jesus, the Creator calms the storms without and within.
Pray that even though we live in a world of disunity we can rejoice in the reality that Jesus prayed for our unity. Pray that we desire to be one with His love growing in us…one with other disciples as a visible manifestation of His glory in the storms of life.
Pray we not fall asleep. Pray we realize that the last word is not ours but God’s. Pray we discover Jesus in the storms of life. Pray we realize that in life’s storms the biggest problem may be finding our faith. Pray we realize that Jesus’ power comes when he is raised up and we are awoken to the power of the Spirit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 