“Then He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40 CSB
This verse comes at the end of a long day for Jesus. He had been teaching all day, as He did during His ministry. As evening came, He says to His disciples, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea” (Mark 4:35 CSB). On their journey across the sea, a “windstorm arose and waves were breaking over the boat” (Mark 4:37 CSB). Jesus was napping when all of this occurs, they wake Him up panicking that they were all going to parish. Jesus rebukes the wind by saying, “Silence! Be still!” Which worked, the wind stopped blowing and the seas were calmed (Mark 4:38-39 CSB). That’s when He turns to His disciples and asks them today’s verse: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 CSB).
Can you imagine being in the boat with Jesus, and panicking that He was going to let you die while He slept? Is that all we think of Him? Sometimes, I think it is. The truth is Jesus is in our boats right now. Whatever circumstance you are in today, Jesus is right there with you. We may not think He is, He might be taking a nap, but He’s still there. He’s still accessible. We can wake Him up just like the disciples did. But isn’t that the lack of faith? Jesus wasn’t napping because He was worried. Jesus was napping because He already knew the outcome, it’s the disciples that doubted, not Jesus. Jesus already knows the outcome of whatever situation you’re facing, but you still have to go through the storm. Here’s where the disciples didn’t doubt: they trusted Jesus when He said, get in the boat; they trusted Jesus to get them to the other side. When their faith was being tested, they knew where to go. They knew Jesus would have the answer, and He did. It was an answer they didn’t expect.
Jesus has an answer for your situation. You have to ask Him for it, then you have to wait. The answer may not come immediately as it did for the disciples. It may take days, weeks, months, even years. But He will answer, that is guaranteed. And it probably won’t be the way you expected. I love this visual image I saw the other day on Facebook that pictured it well. It was a line of people on one side of a deep ravine, they were walking across it on air, the path only becoming clear to them as they took the next step. The first person was only half way across, there was no path for how he would get to the other side. The caption said, “God has a path that we can’t see.” Meaning whatever you’re facing today, God has a path through it that you can’t see right now. All He’s asking you to do is to take one step at a time, in faith, trusting He’ll get you to the other side.
We can take that step today with this prayer:
Lord, we’re sorry for the times that we lack faith. We’re sorry our fears keep us from taking the steps You want us to take to get us where You want us to go. Help us overcome our fears, give us faith to take the next step. Don’t let our fears paralyze us, help us keep moving forward (Mark 4:40 CSB). In Jesus name we pray. Amen
