Completely Calm

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

COMPLETELY CALM

Matt 8:23-27

23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" 26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

NIV

Yes, this is a narrative about a boat ride across the lake. Yes, as we are told, it is somewhat of a common event for a storm to simply spring up without warning. The day we twenty-nine were there, the lake was so calm, not even any waves, the sun was warming, and the lake was like glass. When the owner of the boat turned the motor off, we just drifted so peacefully on this Sea of Galilee. But this was a different day, a different time, with a different type of boat and twelve men with Jesus. The storm was furious and that means it was so bad the waves were sweeping over the boat and even though these men were fishermen, they were afraid, but Jesus wasn’t, he was sleeping right amid the storm. He was calm, unconcerned, asleep. This brings us to the truth of life. There are going to be storms in our lives, storms that could sweep over us. There are going to come without warning, and we have two ways in which we can deal with them. First, we can become afraid, frightened that all will be lost, that something horrible happening to us and we might get swept away by it. That storm could be anything, maybe something different for each one of us, but it is certain storms will come. Jesus told us that in this world we would have troubles, storms, but that He has overcome the world. Jesus, as when those disciples were so afraid and woke Jesus and when He saw their little faith, He calmed the storm. Maybe we need to wake Jesus when those storms of life hit us. No, wait, Jesus is not asleep, He is right here with us, so then we have nothing to fear whatsoever of any storm that comes our way. Even if our faith is weak, His is not and He will calm that storm. But if our faith is not little, but it is big, and we trust completely, then we can say to that storm, be still. In fact, we can choose to live like Jesus, after all, we are being transformed into His likeness, and we reflect His glory with ever-increasing glory. Therefore, we become more like Him and so we should simply be living a calm life, full of faith, able to sleep in the middle of some crisis, or chaos. Jesus told us not to worry, not to be anxious or afraid, in fact, those words, do not be afraid appear seventy-five times throughout the bible. God must really want us to know that we have nothing to be afraid of, not even some storm in life. Jesus was with His disciples, and Jesus is with us. He promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us, so why then should we be afraid. In fact, we can even calm those storms. We can live completely calm.