Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

Nurturing God’s creation
St. Luke 8:22-25

Elizabeth Philip
St. John’s MTC, NY
24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
Often times, as humans, we face many trials and tribulations. Some of these trials may last a short period of time while others may last months or even years. When a problem arises, it is our natural instinct to resolve the issue, whether it may be big or small. We expect these struggles to resolve on their own and majority of the time, we question the presence of God during our time of trial. Most importantly, we question our faith.
         According to the Jews, sin was the main reason as to why something bad happened. For example, illness, financial troubles, and even misbehaved children, were all related to sin. When we face the stormy situations in our lives, we tend to, more times than not, question our own selves. We wonder as to how we ended up in the situation that we are in and what we did in order to reach that situation. We believe that we must have done something wrong in order to come to that stormy point in time.
         When we look at the passage of St. Luke 8:22, it is written, “One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let’s go over to the other side of the lake’. So they got into a boat and set out”. Our Lord wanted to cross the lake and the disciples simply obeyed Him. They didn’t do anything wrong, yet they still faced great danger ahead as the storm began. As Christians, it is important for us to understand that following Jesus does not mean that the storms of our lives are completely taken away but rather that Jesus himself sometimes leads us towards the storm may be to test us or strengthen  our faith.
        After the storm is calmed by Jesus, He questions the disciples as seen in verse 25, “Where is your faith?” My friends, where exactly is our faith? Making the decision to follow Jesus only causes storms to arise because it angers the devil. Whatever boat we are in, the devil wishes to “swamp” our boat. The devil will use everything in his power to distract us from the wondrous work of our Lord. Jesus knew the storm was coming. He led the disciples towards the boat in order to strengthen their faith. In order to escape the storms within our lives, we have to turn to God first. Only then will we survive the storm rather than drowning due to depending on our own methods of survival.  

PRAYER


Dear Father, as we come arose the storms in our lives, we humbly ask that we may put our faith in You to calm the storm. Allow us to seek You first in our trials. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“Let go, Let God (handle it all!).” - Anonymous 

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