As you get older, hopefully you gain a different perspective on how life really works. When we are 18-20 we think we can do anything and that anything is possible, which is true but with a catch. What you don’t know is how much those ideas and potential dreams will cost you, or the challenge of what you will need to sacrifice in order for those dreams and ideas too manifest.
If we read the scripture without a social or commentary bias, this story about Jesus sending his 12 disciples to the next city when evening was approaching is very interesting. Little did the disciples know there would be a strong storm coming that evening, though they knew the sea of Galilee was known for storms happening quickly. The question I have is: did Jesus know he was sending the disciples into trouble or did this just happen?
Mark 6:45
Immediately after this, Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and head out across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home.
Things to remember in answering this question is remembering Jesus always was led by what he saw the Father do. In other words, this was the Father’s will to send the disciples into this storm. Doesn’t that bring comfort to your heart! Secondly, Jesus often would put problems in front of the disciples in order to evaluate their heart and perception about doing God’s will. Often, these problems exposed hidden issues in the disciple’s hearts and their thinking. Jesus wanted to address things they should have learned earlier and facing problems helped to sort out where the disciples trust was weak in their Heavenly Father. Without tests, there is no true evidence of faith.
Within this story, scripture says Jesus went to pray alone while he disciples herded for Bethsaida, which was about 4 miles along the coast. Considering what happened to the disciples, was Jesus praying for them or just praying about other things? My best guess is he knew this would be a test and they would either lose ground in their spiritual walk because of it or they could advance in their walk with God, which I believe is always God’s heart for us. So, I think Jesus was interceding for them to pass the test the father had laid out in this storm.
Here is the thing. Somehow many believers think that if they pray for safety or protection then nothing bad will happen to them. In some cases that is true but certainly not in all cases. Sometimes God has to let us walk independently into harms way in order to awaken us to our need of him. Our personal independence from God often is a problem for every believer and thus the Holy Spirit develops ways to manifest it to us so we can address it. The sad thing is the more we get to know God and his word the tendency is to act more independently because we “Assume” God is always with us and therefore we don’t need to pursue him as hard as when we were more immature. It is paradoxical how knowledge can make us foolish or wise.
This story is in all four of the gospels so it must have greater importance than other stories or principles in scripture. That being said, I think we all have heard this story in sermons and thus it’s easy to think we know all it has to give us and therein is another problem. Shutting down our hunger to know more prevents us from seeing more, especially when it comes to our self reliance in reading scripture or hearing God’s voice. If our souls are not constantly adjusting to new revelation from the Holy Spirit we get stuck in religious thinking instead of flowing in the spirit. We fool ourselves into thinking we are more mature than we really are.
Verse 48 contains one important fact. It says Jesus was going to them but then he started to go past them. Why? Why go to them and then seemingly decide to go past them? Maybe the disciples’ ability to overcome their fear of the storm would be exaggerated by the fear they saw a ghost. Fear is the opposite of faith and they were swimming in it with the storm.
Mark 6:48
He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning he came to them, walking on the water. He started to go past them,
Is it possible Jesus felt they would just freak out by seeing him walking on water so much so he figured it’s best to pass them by and then just meet them at their destination? I wonder how many times I didn’t have an encounter with the Lord because my heart and mind were so captivated by my problem or my trial? Likely more than I realize, just like the disciple seemed to be. Maybe your fear clouds your ability to hear and feel the presence of the Lord, just like it did the disciples on that stormy night.
Near the end of this story, I think there is a hidden truth that applies to the disciples and to us. It states that the disciples didn’t get the “Significance” of the previous miracle of feeding the 5,000. Scripture literally says their “Hearts” were hard, which means not open to what God was trying to teach them. Again, they often react to miracles like you and I do. We forget the significance rather than having it build our faith and relationship with God.
Mark 6:51-52
Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were astonished at what they saw. They still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the multiplied loaves, for their hearts were hard and they did not believe.
I hate to say it but many times my heart is hard or resistant towards what God is trying to speak to me. Therefore, he has to allow hardship or trouble or great struggle to happen so that my heart becomes broken and moldable all over again. I’m sure the Lord doesn’t desire harm to come to us yet he knows if it does it will help us have a soft heart so he can teach us the secrets of the kingdom.
Psalms 34:18
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
You and I have the ability to have a “Teachable” spirit or a stubborn one. We can stay moldable in the Father’s hand or we can become stiff and resistant to what he wants us to learn. Sometimes we are ignorant because we want to be and sometimes we are ignorant of what God is saying because we have become entrenched in our habits and ways of thinking.
I hate to say it but the disciples were just like us in some ways. They wanted to understand the words of Jesus but there were times when Jesus spoke and thy just couldn’t comprehend his words. An example of this is when Jesus told them that the son of Man was going to be killed. They heard his words but didn’t understand them because in this area they were not moldable because it went against what they wanted. They wanted a king that would overturn Roman rule, not a king that would be sacrificed for their sin.
Mark 9:32
But they didn’t understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
That inability to understand Jesus hurt them more than they understood because when the time to stand up for their messiah came in the garden, they all ran away.
I pray you and I will constantly ask God to help us be moldable like clay so that his words to us will be understood and we will bless his heart because of it.
Questions:
1) Can we point out troubles that have come our way because we lacked the ability to see some weakness in our character without it? Confess your desire for God to make your heart soft and pliable like Isaiah did ( Isaiah 64:8)
2) Do you regularly ask God to keep you from testing? The Lord’s prayer encourages us to pray that we would not be led into temptation – that word is about “Testing” (Matthew 6:13)
May the Holy Spirit help us to keep soft hearts and open minds so our tests would be few rather than great,
Pastor Dale
I have learned there are a lot of people who claim they hear from God or from the Holy Spirit who told them to do something, but often times it’s nothing more than justifying their own desire. It seems they just want to say it’s ok to do something they want to do and God’s voice becomes their “Rubber Stamp” of approval. Granted, there are people who do hear from the Lord but maybe, just maybe, there are more pretenders than practicers in the body of Christ than we realize.
In this third and final article on healing and the atonement I want to to conclude with the passage in 2 Peter 24-25 as Peter references the passage used previously in Isaiah 53, typically used as the text for the purpose of Jesus coming to earth to save humanity from sin. This now is the third article on healing, so if you have not read parts 1 and 2, please do so before reading this final one, as they are built on each other.
In the first article on healing I talked in great detail about God designing our bodies to self heal and without that design no doctors or medicines would be able to heal us. Secondly, I talked about being in harmony with God in order for his additional blessing in our healing process. Many Christians today have been taught to confess that they are healed when they are walking contrary to how God intended. Confession is a positive element in healing as long as we are walking as God intended. If you have not read the first article, I suggest you do so because I laid out a foundation for how I will proceed with this topic.
Let me start this topic with a couple of simple beliefs that I have: First, I believe God heals people, plain and simple. Second, I do not believe healing is in the atonement, but rather it is God’s design and desire to heal us prior to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
This is the third article on myths we believe in. If you have not read the first two, please read them first to understand why I am calling these topics myths. When Christians read the scriptures we take our cues about how to understand what God is saying from so called “Intelligent” people who claim they know Greek and Hebrew words and sentence structure. But, have we been brainwashed to believe false ideas about what God is saying? History is not always right, especially when it comes to scripture.
Life has a way of making you feel like no one cares about what you are going through. Sometimes even God seems included in that. You can be in a crowd of people and still feel overwhelmed by the sense of abandonment. Even when the facts speak loudly, our feeling can overwhelm us.
Times like that are a part of the human experience even though we have good friendships with others and call our selves Christians who believe God loves us. Nevertheless, we can still find ourselves isolated in our souls. Our minds tell us one thing yet our feelings tell us something totally different and those emotions sometimes scream the loudest.
In those times, we need a foundation in our souls that can weather the storm we find ourselves in. That foundation won’t be successful if we try to establish it when we are in the storm but has to be established and relied on when we are centered and calm. It’s during the calm time that we prepare, not during the storm.
There is a story in the book of Luke where Martha is going through a storm in her soul. She “FEELS” now one cares, even though she “knows” otherwise. One of the few references about Martha is where Jesus is said to “LOVED” Lazarus, Martha and Mary. We all assumed Jesus loved people, especially his disciples, but John goes out of his way to state it in no uncertain terms because John had just written that Lazarus was dying and yet Jesus stayed where he was and didn’t go see him or pray for him, which seemed contrary to acting in love.
John 11:5
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
We all have a problem in reading people’s response in life as it relates to us and others. We misread people’s intentions and motives, which leads us to wrong conclusions. Because we can’t read peoples minds we assume things that may or may not be there and then our friendships go through the proverbial storm. I guess we all go through times like that and Martha was no exception.
One day Martha finds herself hosting a meal in her home. The fact that she opened her home to Jesus also meant she opened her home to his disciples and those that accompanied him. Luke tells us there were many people that traveled with Jesus, both men and women, so it’s not hard to believe that there could have been 20-30 full time followers going from town to town with Jesus.
Luke 8:1-3
Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.
Now, in this one time at Martha’s house, she was responsible to make sure everything was prepared and ready. In her business she gets overwhelmed by the responsibility and gets irritated with her sister Mary whom she thinks should shoulder the burden of the event with her. Yet Mary seemed captivated by Jesus speaking. Martha tells Mary to come help yet Mary was too focused on listening so she couldn’t hear her sisters stress or request.
I have to believe all of us have been in similar places where we seem to see a need and no one else sees the situation the same way we do and it ends up making us frustrated. Unchecked the frustration can spill over to speaking words we shouldn’t have said, which insulates us more than before and leads to loneliness.
Martha is in the storm of her life when she just wanted to be a blessing to Jesus. Sometimes we intend to do the right thing and it only ends up blowing up into a mess. It is in these times that we either overcome or are overcome.
Martha, at this time, felt the stress of her chosen responsibilities were ignored not only by her sister but Jesus as well. How often have we been overcome to think God doesn’t care because he didn’t produce some miracle to make it all better?
Luke 10:40
But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.
If you know this story you know many pastors and teachers criticize Martha’s and make Mary look like a saint yet I see so much more in the story. First, remember scripture says that Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha and Mary. It didn’t say just her brother and sister Mary but all three of them. That is the foundational truth that Martha needed to keep a hold of in her stress and help her gain perspective. Secondly, Martha’s relationship with Jesus was solid enough for her to speak her mind and thoughts to him even if those thoughts and feelings were right or wrong. If we really love God and believe he loves us we should feel the liberty to speak honestly in prayer with him rather than pretending. Often counseled people who are struggling in their relationship with God need to find some open field somewhere and scream their hearts out to God even if it sounds bad because God loves honesty not pious words.
Martha asks the million dollar question to Jesus about whether he “CARED” about her frustration and relational problem with Mary. I have to believe Martha expected Jesus to do something about the problem without her saying anything about it. We do the same thing when trouble comes our way. We often cry out to God and ask “Don’t You Care” because we thought if he did he would fix things either before they happen or right after they happen.
When Jesus answered Mary he doesn’t rebuke her or condemn her. Instead, he says “Martha Martha,” which is like saying I do care. Jesus was showing affection to Martha, not rebuke. Then he identifies the problem of Martha’s pain. It was “WORRY”, not things like food and drink or cushions or lighting. We often let our feelings override our good judgment when dealing with tough issues. Martha let worry captivate her heart when she was trying to do a good thing by being hospitable.
Luke 10:41-42
And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.
Jesus was not saying that Mary is the better person at the time but Mary saw what was most important – The Words of Jesus. Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you or someone you know about their focus in the storm right now? We can’t avoid the storms of life but we can keep our focus on Jesus in the storm.
If you have lost your focus like Martha today, refocus on the person that loves you the most even though “HE” is not fixing the problem right now. Trust him to walk you through the storm until the storm passes and you once again are feeling blessed and happy in the Lord. Your focus and trust will either set you free in Jesus or enslave you if you keep looking at what’s wrong in your life.
One of my favorite verses that helps me to get refocused is in Proverbs 3:5-8
Proverbs 3:5-8
Trust the LORD with all your heart, and don’t depend on your own understanding. Remember the LORD in all you do, and he will give you success.
Don’t depend on your own wisdom. Respect the LORD and refuse to do wrong. Then your body will be healthy and your bones will be strong!
Questions:
1) Do you find yourself struggling with trusting that God really loves you because of troubles? One of the best things to do is VERBALLY cry out to God in prayer while being brutally honest.
2) Do your worries seem to captivate your heart even more lately? One of the best scriptures to rely on is James 4:7, which identifies the cause and solution.
Trusting that God LOVES us,
Pastor Dale
We live in a time in history when we are so attached to our technology that we are losing our ability to truly care for one another in meaningful ways. Our addiction to smartphones have beguiled us into an insatiable hunger to be informed about what’s happening in the world, and people in whom we are interested, that we are unaware of how separated we have become from the people right around us.
What if we could have more confidence in prayer? What if we could pray with greater confidence and really see things change, rather than just praying with little expectation like too many of have a habit of doing, would you and I pray more or pray less? My belief is we would love to pray with confidence, except much of our praying seems more like wishful thinking than confidence.
