WHERE IS YOUR FAITH
Luke 8:23-25a
as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, "Where is your faith?"
It was a beautiful day of fishing in the middle of lake Superior, at the Standdard Rock lighthouse. The big lake, that was generally rough, was unusually calm and the surface was like a slab of polished marble, with only an occasional ripple from a lake trout being pulled from the crystal clear water into the boat.
After a few hours of fishing, a call came over the radio. It was a warning of coming gale force south winds. The captain yelled, "Pull up the lines we gotta head in." Rods were stowed and the boat turned into the south wind and began fighting the growing waves. The confidence of the captain in the hard situation gave the fisherman a faith that things would be OK.
In.the scripture above, the focus isn't on the storm, but in a question... it seems like a simple question... "where is your faith".
But the more we think about the question, the more profound it becomes. "Where is your faith?" Where is it, when the storms hit you and your life? What do you trust? We trust what our eyes see. We trust the violent force that is tossing our life around like a toy and could toss us over at any moment.
When the storm was raging and Jesus was sleeping, which looked more powerful to His disciples?
This is an important picture to remember, because when the storms of life hit they almost always appear stronger to us than God Himself. The important question to ask at that moment is, "where is your faith"?
For we live by faith, not by sight.
(2 Corinthians 5:7)
Charles Spurgeon once said in a sermon,
"My faith rests not on what I am or shall be, or feel, or know, but in who Christ is, in what He has done, and few in what He is now doing for me."
When the storms of life hit we have a choice, we can trust that the storm is in control and that all hope is lost. We can trust in what we can do ourselves about the storm and eventually be overtaken by it. Or we can trust that the very God that created the wind and the rain, the lightening and the thunder... and any else that is pounding against us in life. Or we can trust that it is all under His command... and that He can calm the storm.
An old hymn that I grew up with says where my faith and hope should be... on the Solid Rock
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus' name.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
"Where is your FAITH" resting today? If you aren't in a storm right now, you can rest assured there is one on the horizon. Prepare yourself now for the oncoming storms
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