Day Thirty-Five
After healing the mans son who was possessed by demonic forces Jesus rebukes the crowd because of their faith depleting atmosphere, and challenges His disciples that they must make sure that their faith is not robbed by the atmosphere around them, that their belief in God must be preserved at all costs. He places into the disciple’s hands, a challenge about their relationship with God, about the currency of their own faith, about their inability, after empowerment just one week earlier, to be able to do a basic miracle. He shows them that every miracle is reliant upon FAITH, and that that their faith needs to be constantly kept in store.
Whatever atmosphere swirls around us, at work or at home we must hold on, hold fast to and increase our faith, not allow society to decrease it, not allow the atmosphere to plunder it and not allow the circumstances to rob us, It’s why he turns the man’s question back on him and say, its not about if I can that is a given and NEVER changes, its about IF YOU CAN!!! He’s saying be aware, be alert to the FAITH STEALERS. It’s possible to see miracles but only if you are rich in Faith. Your faith needs to be current, it needs to be strong, and you need to be rich in faith. This is where many people find themselves right now. UNABLE!!!!!
Faith is not a static thing; it’s not an object like a chair. It’s more like your weight. It goes up and down depending on what you feed it. ☺
This week I became really aware of how my silent faith needed to become a roar of faith and a shout of faith. As I began to declare my faith, confess it out loud it made a huge difference to me, and things that I thought were ‘stuck’ started to move forward again.
Mark 4:1-2, 35-41
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
The disciples had just spent all day listening to the word being taught by Jesus, and then Jesus says, “Lets go over to the other side” The original text reads more like “lets go through to the other side”
Sometimes there are storms Jesus wants to take us through but the destination isn’t the storm it’s the other side!
The destination seems unreachable once the storm hits and it’s the disciple’s reaction to the storm that reveals their lack of faith. They immediately begin to question, “Jesus don’t you care?” I must confess I’ve asked the Lord that same question more than a few times! Jesus response to the storm however was to command it to cease, and immediately it was stilled. Don’t question what you are going through, don’t question if Jesus is aware of your circumstance, simply stand up in that storm and command it to be still in Jesus name.
Scripture to meditate on: Mark 4:1-41