Psalm 89:9 “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” This episode is about three times that God calmed the waters in the Bible. It also talks about what those three stories tell us about how God will calm the stories in our life. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Calm The Waters
Psalm 89:9 “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.”
There are several instances in the Bible when the sea was raging and God calmed it. One of the times was when God asked Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach repentance. Jonah did not want to do this and instead of going to Ninevah he went in the opposite direction and got on a boat going elsewhere. While they were at sea the waves began to rise up and a great storm came upon them. They called Jonah to see if he had any ideas as they had all prayed to their gods and nothing had happened. Jonah told them to throw him over the side of the boat into the sea. He explained that God was mad at him because he disobeyed God’s orders. Once they threw Jonah off the boat, the seas calmed, and those that were on the boat offered a sacrifice to God and made vows to him. You can read more about this in the Bible in the book of Jonah.
Another time that God calmed the storm is recounted in Matthew 8:23-27. “Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The third time I was thinking about was when Jesus was walking on water to get to the boat. This can be found in Matthew 14:22-33. “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
I think each of these instances can teach us a lesson about what we should do when we are in a storm and the waves are rising and we need God to come and quiet them. In the first story, Jonah was trying to avoid doing what God asked him to do. God gave him a direct order, and he didn’t want to do it, so he thought he could run away from the problem. I am not sure if you know the story of Jonah or not, but running away did not solve his problem. In fact, as soon as he was thrown overboard he was swallowed whole by a giant fish and there he stayed until he agreed to go to Ninevah. Has this ever happened to you? No, I don’t mean have you ever been swallowed by a giant fish. I mean have you ever tried to run from your problems, or responsibilities, only to end up in a worse situation than you could have imagined. I am not sure exactly what Jonah was running from. At first I thought he was scared of the people in Ninevah hurting him, as they were terrible people. Then I read that he was running away because he knew they would repent and he didn’t think they deserved forgiveness. Either way, his situation did not improve by avoiding this responsibility.
Running from our problems don’t make them go away. Jonah still had to go to Ninevah and preach repentance but he ended up first having to get thrown into the sea and spend a really long time all alone in the belly of a giant fish. Sometimes we are called to do things we don’t want to do. You may feel that you have a completely logical reason for not wanting to do it. Maybe you feel you aren’t qualified for the task or maybe you are afraid, whatever the reason is you don’t want to do it. Running from this task or avoiding it is only prolonging the inevitable. I think what this first story teaches us is that we should just do the task God is asking us to do. We may not think we are capable or qualified to do it but God wouldn’t ask us to do it if he wasn’t going to equip us for the task. If we are doing what the Lord is asking us to do, we can’t fail. He won’t let us.
The second story teaches us that we should trust in the Lord. Jesus was on the boat with them. He is the son of God. They could have just asked him to calm the waves and He would have. They could have prayed to God, and He would have calmed the waves as well. Every time I hear the words “you of little faith” in the Bible I wince a little. I wonder how many times God has said this in heaven when he watches me do something, or when he hears my thoughts. We all find ourselves in situations when we feel like the waters are rising and we can’t see a way out. I think this second story is teaching us to turn to God. Trust that he will take command of the situation. This is not easy. Sometimes the way out seems so impossible and though we know that God can do anything, we have trouble imagining that He would do that. Also, sometimes we may feel alone as if God is not with us during the storm. This second story also teaches us that God is always there. We don’t have to be afraid because God is right there in the storm with us. He knows what we need and is just waiting for us to ask Him for it.
I think the third story is maybe a little more subtle. I think the lesson from the third story can be found when we look at Peter’s interactions with Jesus. Everyone on the boat was afraid of this man walking on water towards them. They thought he was a ghost. “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Peter was walking on water, even though he had never done it before, even though it was windy. Jesus told Him to come and Peter did. So, what happened? Peter looked away from Jesus. He shifted his focus. Once he looked away and started thinking about something else, other than Jesus, he started to sink. Isn’t this what happens to us?
If you look at the storms in your life, the times when you felt like you may not survive, where was your focus? Was your focus on all of your problems and all of the ways that you felt like you were drowning? If you are like most of us, yes, that is exactly what you were focused on. It's so easy to get wrapped up in our problems and spend all of our time trying to come up with a way to get ourselves out of the storm. This third story teaches us where our focus needs to be. We need to turn our focus toward Jesus. He is the solution to all of our problems. God already has the answers worked out for every problem or situation that you can get yourself into. We just have to turn to Him and ask Him to save us. If He can command the waves in the sea to settle down, then he can certainly calm the waves in your life. If we keep our focus on the Lord, we will walk right through the storms in our lives. God will calm the storms if we just ask.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I ask that you help us do the things you ask us to do without trying to avoid them. Lord, I ask that you help us not run from my problems, as it never makes the problems go away. Heavenly Father, help us to keep our focus fixed on you. Help us to turn to you when the storm is raging and the waves are rising. Lord, we know you were always there with us in the storm, and we thank you for that. We know that you can fix all of our problems. Please help us remember this when we forget. Lord, help us to be like Peter and jump out of that boat to walk towards you. We thank you so much, Lord, for all you have done in our lives. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, amen!