22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. (Matthew 14:22-23)
- Jesus and the disciples just got finished with the feeding of the 5,000+ people with 5 loaves of bread, and 2 fish.
- Jesus immediately tells them to hop on a boat and go to the other side, while he goes to the mountainside to pray.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.
- The disciples started to ride across the lake, and after they were a few miles away from the land, a storm started to form on the lake.
48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. (Mark 6:48-50)
- The disciples were struggling to cross the lake because of the heavy winds.
- Jesus went walking on the water across the lake.
- The disciples saw Jesus and were terrified because they thought he was a ghost… They didn’t recognize Jesus.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed.. (mark 6:50-51)
Why is it so easy to recognize Jesus when life is going great, but so hard to recognize him when are in the storm?
When a sudden storm falls upon us we find it difficult to see Jesus anywhere near.
Our greatest fear should be not being able to see Jesus in our times of trouble.
The sad part of the story is that it wasn’t just one of them that didn’t recognize Jesus… It was all 12 of them. As crazy as it sounds, even when you are with a group of people who know Jesus, we can still go through storms in life.
God took them away from the miracles, shut them up in a tiny boat, and let them go through the storm. He allowed them to be shaken but not sunken!
Jesus wants to be trusted as Lord in every storm of life.
In fact, many times in life, we think we know Jesus; but just like the disciples, when life gets rough, he is the last one we turn to. We need to be able to recognize Jesus in every situation in life.
The disciples got to witness an awesome miracle by the feeding of the 5,000; and immediately, they forgot about all of the awesome things that happened literally hours before this storm. They forget the GOOD and focused on the BAD.
This story is interesting because in this situation, I think we would all react this way. In fact, we DO react this way all the time.
Storms are guaranteed to come our way.. but it is up to us to recognize Jesus when they do come.
I agree... we do tend to get caught up in the drama of life and forget that Jesus is even there. Then we start to feel lonely and abandoned. But He is there. We just have to call out to Him and search for Him a little more to see Him and know that its going to be okay. He's got our backs. ;)
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