Sonsofthesea.org

"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Tag: Adversity

Waves of Affliction And Trouble. Matthew 14:22-25.

November 9, 2019 /
“As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people.”

It wasn’t Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand, nor was it Peter’s walking on water that jumped out at me as I read Chapter 14 of Matthew’s Gospel. It wasn’t even Jesus’ walking on water. Rather, it was the fact that He ‘insisted’ that His disciples get in their boat and cross the Sea of Tiberias, and head towards Gennesaret without Him—all the while knowing a storm was headed their way. But why? Why did Jesus insist that they go ahead without them? Why send Twelve of His dearest friends—His beloved disciples, into a perilous storm He knew was coming? Why would He send them off on their own to face a storm He knew was far beyond their capacity to traverse?

Would you be surprised if I said His love for them was the motivating force behind Jesus’ command that they cross the sea without Him? Be sent into a storm He knew they were ill-prepared for? Difficult as it may be to take in, God’s love will, oftentimes places us in situations or allow us to face seasons of difficulties that we simply do not understand, are in no way prepared to handle. Included within these often-stormy moments, are precious gifts given us—if we’ll but receive them. Those sweet moments of clarity that lead us into the sure knowing that He alone is God. And, in those moments, a heart-cry goes out, Abba! Father! Save me as only can! We hand ourselves over to the One who allowed the storm so that we might witness Him walking on the water right there beside us; already there with us, ready and willing to save. Just as it was with the disciples, so it is with us, too. Though skilled in their craft as fishermen, and dedicated followers of Jesus, what they were about to face is an example of one of the occasions the Lord would use adversity to build their faith in Him. To redirect their natural tendency to handle things on our own—back towards Himself.

When we become aware that life will give us more than we can handle and come to grips with this, we find a promise: God is faithful to meet us in the mess and in the pain. And when He does, we learn to recognize our constant need to depend on Him. This is why Peter instructs the Church to cast our fears, worries, suffering, and pain on God. He reasons we can do this because God cares for us. When life deals us more than we can handle, we can rest in the reality that God can handle it –MICHAEL HIDALGO.

They were following after Him, mind you, serving Him, they were not out of the will of God, had not disobeyed Him. This was no rebuke. No punishment for deliberate sin. These were not men who had decided to run off and go their own way. On the contrary, in getting into that boat, they were following Jesus’ command, just as they always had. From the time Jesus called His disciples, He began stretching their faith, preparing them for that day when He knew He would have to leave them behind and return to the Father. This command to cross over before Him was no exception. He was ever instructing them, refine them and building them up. Taking from them what did not benefit them, their calling and purpose, and depositing into them instead new-life and purpose, a new vision and wisdom; readying them for the task of spreading His Message to a world who would all-too-often reject that message—reject Him. Sound familiar?

Jesus knew His friends end from their very beginnings. Hence, He knew exactly what they’d need, both individually, and collectively to do the will of the One that had sent Him, and chosen them. As evidence of this stretching of their faith, we first witness Jesus’ disciples facing a similar storm back in Matthew Eight. Immediately following Jesus’ informing those within earshot of the cost of following after Him, He instructs His disciples to get into their boat and head off to the opposite side of the lake –Matthew 7:18-22; 8:23-27.

God is always working. Always preparing us for what is just ahead—just on the other side of any given storm or struggle.  

It is here then, in verse 24 of Matthew 8, that we first see the disciples facing a storm at sea. It is here also, where we come to understand that the disciples have yet to come into the full knowledge of just who this Jesus truly is. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” –verse 27. It is here too, that we witness an eternal Truth that can and will carry us through any storm. Jesus has promised to never leave His chosen alone.

He was as present in the disciple’s boat in Matthew 14 as He was in Matthew 8. The difference between the two being the lesson He was teaching in each instance—the degree of stretching that was taking place. Their learning to see beyond the limits of the natural world that they may see more clearly into the realm of the spirit. Contained within Matthew 14 is, in part, a vital nugget: to always remember the Truth of who God is, has shown Himself to be in our lives; contrary to the intensity of the storm we may be facing. For as long as we are on this earth, waves of affliction and troubles will come our way. How we perceive them, allow them to affect us, determines the shape we’ll come out in on the other side of our storm. Shipwrecked or strengthened?

Know this beloved: it is to the other side of the storm that we as His disciples, His servants, are being called; to serve, witness to, to bind up and undergird another. Why, in part, we have been chosen in Him at all. The other side of the storm is what we, as our brothers before us, are being prepared for, stretched, that we might reach the one God is sending us to; all the while becoming more like the One who sent us…

Another of the reasons the disciples were sent into the thick of a situation that was too great for them to manage on their own, was to teach them reliance—to trust in God alone. Only God can safely get us through the perilous storms that would otherwise destroy us. Contrary to our strengths and gifts, to our God-given abilities and our divine potential, we were not created to live apart from God—we are not our own. Love teaches us to rely solely on God, while the world around us screams at us to be self-reliant. To be our own god, to save ourselves. Let us each, instead, follow the lead of our brothers before us.

After being saved from a storm, once again—after allowing God to have stretched their faith one more time, it is here, for the first time that we hear these men finally proclaim that they know, (a knowing so deep and pure and true that they were willing to die for it) that this Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God. Long before Jesus ever stood over the dark void this storm—and its outcome, existed in Him; as does every storm—and its outcome, that you and I will ever face. Even that one that appears so perilous that it threatens to take us out! Fear not beloved. God is as present with you now as He was with our brothers then. And, the wind and waves still obey Him today…

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” –Isaiah 43:1-2.

He has called you to pass through the afflictions, the troubles, this current storm, beloved. Through the waters and rivers. Through the fire—to faith and Life in Him. Trust that you have everything within you you’ll ever need to get there; God in you and with you—always and in all ways. Waves of affliction will come—troubles too, but we, you and me and Peter and John and every believer that has ever or will ever live—are never, not for one nano-second, ever alone. He still walks on the stormy waters we are passing through them on the way to those He has sent us to reach; before He calls us back to Himself. Rely on that Truth. Place your trust in God alone…

If you have read this through this teaching, and do not have a relationship with Jesus, the One who saves all those who cry to Him from their hearts; then please, ask Him to show Himself to you know. Ask Him to be the Lord and Savior of your life. “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” Romans 10:9.

Convergence. Mark 5: 29-30

November 25, 2018 /

 “Immediately her flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body [and knew without any doubt] that she was healed of her suffering. Immediately Jesus, recognizing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?”

 

More blood. Another day of isolation and sameness. Would it ever stop?

Have you ever felt this way? Is there something “bleeding” in your life?

It was just another day in the village. The sun had risen as it always had—and with it, her never-ending flow of blood. This was her morning; every day. For years—12 to be exact. The sun rose, and the blood flowed. “But one day Lord, I know you will heal my body, I just know you will.” She had whispered this little prayer every morning, hopefully. Trying to believe that at any moment it would happen—her healing that is. She offered it up, this silent pray, as she scattered the morning grain to those hungry hens that gathered unfailingly the moment they heard her footsteps. She had no idea however, that this day, unlike all the others, would usher in the end of her long years of suffering. No idea it would afford her what all the money she’d spent in vain never could. What no doctors visit ever did. She had no idea that every wet-eyed midnight plea, every sunlit prayer was about to be answered…

“She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” –vs.26.

The sudden commotion in the village was her first clue. The air was abuzz with a myriad of babbling voices. A large crowd was forming near the edge of the nearby lake. At its center, Jairus, leader of the synagogue. And with him some stranger whom Jairus seemed to be pleading with. She didn’t know who this stranger was. She didn’t recognize the One who held her healing. The One to whom her silent prayers ascended, day after day. She didn’t know that before she was even born this very second had been ordained. And, as a result, life as she had known it these past 12 years would be changed forever…

As I read this account of the unnamed woman with the issue of blood, I was struck by the “suddenly” of her healing. Of her encountering Jesus. Of how every single detail concerning that divine moment had to have lined up perfectly in order that she be healed and set free by days end. I was reminded of exactly how involved God is in every detail, every second of our lives—and, how unaware we can be of Him. How we have the propensity to wander through our days robotically, excepting whatever comes our way at face value—life becomes just another day of unremitting bleeding. Like lemmings, we follow rote days that turn into rote weeks that become rote years of living minus any sense of genuine expectancy that at any moment, God may show up suddenly—changing everything!  Just as He did for our unnamed woman. Just as He did for me. Just as He does for so many of His “unnamed” children.

God is moved when our faith, no matter how small, is put into action. Suddenly, He shows up and, as a result, nothing is ever the same…

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes” –vs. 30?

Scripture makes it clear that our unnamed woman had never met Jesus—she’d only heard tell of this man who performed many miracles. It struck me that though she’d not met Him, she most certainly had a measure of faith. Otherwise, why would Jesus have said that her faith had healed her? Some might argue here that she had nothing to lose. That she’d lost everything, had been ostracized long enough, suffered long enough, that it all finally culminated into her running out into the crowd chasing after the One she’d heard the others tell stories of. That faith was not the motivating force behind her dash towards Jesus, rather it was sheer desperation that drove her towards Him that fateful day…

Even so, who’s to say that Jesus won’t use our moments of desperation? Won’t allow our weaknesses, fears, and failures—our illnesses and insecurities, our fractured families and relationships, those moments of sheer exasperation that cause us to crack, to serve His good pleasure? Use them to break up the fallow ground of our hearts, preparing them to fully receive Him? Who says He won’t allow “our bleeding” to be used both to water and to cultivate our tiny seeds of fragile embryonic faith?

Anyone who’s received their salvation later in life—possibly after years of having lived life on their own terms, will, I believe understand this …

Perchance this is what happened to the woman with the issue of blood?

It could be she needed to spend every dime she had, see every doctor that was available, spend countless nights in fear and burdened with worry before she would cry out to God in complete surrender. Some folks need to come to the end of themselves before they’ll humble themselves before Jesus. And too, God will allow us to do things our own way—even if our way isn’t beneficial to us. I liken this to a willful child determined to do things their own way. Loving parents will try to guide them—direct their child towards a path that will benefit their future. Yet, in their rebellious determination to do things their own way, the child runs recklessly headlong on their chosen path of self-destruction. Often getting hurt, losing money, friends, jobs, and precious years of their lives in the process. Ask anyone whose struggled with addiction, they’ll tell you…

Is this where we find our woman with the issue of blood? Is she at the end of herself—her money, patients, and precious time spent stubbornly chasing after a healing that has consistently eluded her?

Has she, like so many of us, exhausted herself through relentless self-sufficiency? Much like the hamster on his proverbial wheel?

Or, did she, like many who’ve been “bleeding”, want nothing more than to taste normalcy and acceptance once again? Hope to be included once again? Become a functioning member of their family, neighborhood, community once again. Join in again. Being rid, finally, and completely, of what has held them captive—isolating them for far too long. Was she instead proving to each of us what true faith in the face of continuous adversity looks like? Was she showing us that even an anemic, isolated faith can muster the strength necessary to push past everything in its way when empowered by the Holy Spirit? Allowing it thus to be led to the place where desperation, desire, and destiny converge. Where the plans to prosper and not to harm finally see the Light of day? “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed” –Mark 5: 22.

On behalf of every person who is weak from years of “bleeding” I believe, and Scripture certainly appears to favor that it’s this later scenario, rather than the former, that enabled this woman to come to the only One who had destined to meet her at this particular shore at this particular time.  To allow His virtue to flow into her the moment she allowed herself to go low—to push past everything that had prohibited her to press forward until now. To exchange her un-cleanness and shame—her isolation and pain, for His love, recognition, and healing. The old covenant replaced by the New. By her willingness to drag the ground if need be, the woman with the issue of blood was able to finally stand tall. She was healed. Freed. At peace. There’s a paradox that’s proved in this healing: it wasn’t simply touching Jesus’ garment that healed this woman. It was, according to Jesus’ own Words, her touch of “faith that had freed her and made her whole” –Mark 5:34.

If this is you today my brother or sister, if something in your life is “bleeding”, has caused you to become weakened; whether physically or psychological; If depression or addiction, fear or cutting or drugs, sex or porn has held you captive far too long, then please, I beseech you, take a page from this woman’s playbook. Run after Jesus in faith believing—regardless of those things or people that surround you. Allow your desperation to converge with the wooing of the Holy Spirit so that you too might touch the only One who can make you whole…

And friend, if you’ve yet to ask Jesus into your life—if you’ve yet to meet Him, today is your day! He has led you hear that you too might reach out in faith believing and be made whole in Him. Won’t you stretch out your hand in faith today?

 

 

 

 

 

© 2024 Sonsofthesea.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑