Rest in the Storm

In our church assembly’s weekly Bible Study, we are currently looking at Mark 4.  Reading the second half of the chapter, I was struck by the similarity to our current world situation:

“37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

The world outside our windows is turbulent and sloshing into our safe havens.  We are overwhelmed with our lack of control and shocked that our efforts are insufficient.  We cry out to God and wonder why he has not stopped the storm.

Maybe you feel like you are perishing, or at least drowning economically, socially, spiritually.  Unmoored from all that is familiar.  Rowing your hardest, but not going anywhere.  You’re tired and scared and frustrated.

I often say to Tazie, “Never fear, God is near.”  God’s power and providence and sovereignty and omnipotence mean that my boat, no matter how full of water it may be, is held by the one who holds the seas.  God lets in the waves, he lets in the sickness, he lets in the failures, but he does not let go of me.

For those of you who know Christ as your Savior, take heart.  Here’s Charles Spurgeon: “My dear brothers and sisters, do you know that sometimes God works a greater wonder when He sustains His people in trouble than He would if He brought them out of it? For Him to let the bush burn on and yet not to be consumed is a grander thing than for Him to quench the flame and so save the bush. God is being glorified in your troubles, and if you realize this you will be ready to say, “Lord, heap on the loads if it is for Your glory. Give me but strength equal to my day, and then pile on the burdens. I shall not be crushed beneath them, but I shall be made to illustrate Your power. My weakness shall glorify Your might.”

Lastly, for those who wonder why Mark 4 depicts a sleeping Savior, consider Spurgeon’s words again: “He slept not merely because of His fatigue as a man, but because He felt safe in His Father’s hands. When the Master put His foot on board that vessel, He knew there would be a storm. The tossing did not take Him by surprise, and yet He went to sleep because He knew that all was right. No one could have slept with such foreknowledge but one whose heart was full of confidence in God. The Lord would have His people restful and not fretful, “So He gives His beloved sleep.” We have never read of our Lord’s sleeping except on this occasion, this majestic occasion, when He was asleep in a storm-tossed boat, with His head on a pillow, because His heart was on the bosom of God.”

Do you know rest like that?  Real, abiding rest? Peace that passes all understanding?

Turn to the One who endured the storm for you.

“The tempest’s awful voice was heard,
O Christ, it broke on Thee!
Thy open bosom was my ward,
It braved the storm for me.
Thy form was scarred, Thy visage marred;
Now cloudless peace for me.”