"Where is your faith?"

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

“WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?”

Luke 8:22-25

22 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. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

NIV

Although this is a great story about how Jesus even commands the wind and the raging waters, it is not a teaching moment about the power of Jesus. We know he has the power, as he created all things that were created. We know he is the Son of God, and that he is in fact God in the flesh and therefore has the power over all things. So then the life lesson for us today is in the question Jesus asked his disciples and us, “Where is your faith?” We can be certain of one thing in this life and that is we will at some point, if not numerous times, experience a storm. This is not a storm of weather, but a storm of life, a difficult situation in which it seems as though we would drown. There are times when life simply delivers a harsh blow and we have the choice to respond in several manners. We could be filled with fear, as those disciples were, thinking they were in danger of drowning, but if we do that, we can also be sure Jesus will be asking us, “Where is your faith?” We could also simply allow this storm in our life to continue and try as best as we could to row through it on our own, but we must know that we cannot overcome the storm alone, we need Jesus. We need to know he has the power and he is willing to not only travel through it with us, but he will make sure we do not drown. But we should not wait for his question, we should already have that faith. Having faith when the sea is calm and life is as a bed of roses, everything is going so well and we have everything, no troubles. But what happens to us when trouble finds us? Do we question if God still is with us? Do we get all upset and fearful thinking we are going down for the count? Do we start looking for a way to sail out of the storm on our own, or do we look to Jesus and simply know he will take care of us? The one question we do not really want to hear is, “Where is your faith?” He should already know our faith is in him, always has been from the moment we accepted him as our Lord and Savior and always will be even after we step into eternity. Our faith is in Jesus.