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Friday 21 January 2011

Matthew 8:23-27 - Sleeping through the storm

One of the features of God that is frequently referred to in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, is His ability to control all of nature. Therefore this incident is particularly important in demonstrating the divinity of Jesus, for He too had power over nature.
The disciples followed Jesus and ended up in the middle of a storm. Now some of them were fishermen, so they would be used to storms. This implies that this storm must have really been a serious one. When we follow Christ storms will sometimes arise out of nowhere, this does not mean we have made a mistake.
Contrast the different reactions of Jesus and the disciples. The disciples were full of fear, Jesus slept. After being woken up Jesus rebukes the disciples, asking why were they afraid. Now there can be no doubt that the storm appeared to be very serious. However, Jesus reaction appears to imply that it would not actually have done them any harm. When storms arise in life we do not have to panic. The next time one does try it! Refuse to give in to our natural reaction of panicking, and instead refuse to worry about whatever the storm is, and see what happens! Now, do not be silly here. This is not a call to be irresponsible. The disciples could actually do nothing about the storm, so there was no point worrying about it. There are things that arise where we do have the power and the responsibility to do something, but let us take the responsibilities we should take up, but not worry about everything else.

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