Dear Ones:
It may just be that one of the reasons why the Lord created the sea was to make us to understand that the circumstances of life are like the sea, ever-changing, ever shifting, never remaining the same. Those circumstances can be the source of fear, anxiety, confusion, and dismay. “Stability” is not necessarily resistance to that change, but the overcoming and enduring of the change, remaining in tact, on course, and victorious. Throughout the ages the examples are numerous of those who have weathered the storms of life, and endured…finishing their course “with joy.” The question for the believer in Jesus Christ is: “How is it done, to be realized in the life? How does one overcome, endure, and conquer?” The answer resides in the Master and the Method.
There is perhaps no greater illustration of this subject than when Christ entered the ship with his disciples, set off across the Sea of Galilee, and fell asleep from exhaustion. The wind arose, the waves also…and the boat begin filling up with water. The disciples come to the Lord to wake him, and desperately say to Him, “We perish.” Let’s look at the Master. He stands up, takes in the scene, and somehow is not phased at all by it. He knows that the great objective to be achieved in this “storm” is to address a problem in the hearts of His disciples, a problem of coming to grips with who HE is, and what He has come to do. “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” (Matt. 8:26) How is it that the Lord Jesus is not afraid, and the disciples are? It is because the Lord KNEW something, and ACTED upon it. What did He know, and how did He act upon it? The Lord Jesus perfectly knew that regardless of the situation and circumstance, God the Father was unfazed, unchanged, at every instant “for” Him, with Him, and would enable Him to BE in that circumstance what He had been called to be and to do. It is on the basis of this knowledge that the Lord ACTS…in perfect faith, and with all authority, rebuking the wind, and saying unto the sea, “Peace, be still.” The result… “a great calm.” (Mk. 4:39)
The Lord Jesus would practice here what the Psalmist would declare: “I have SET the Lord before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (16:8) It is one thing to KNOW that God is with us, that he is our Rock (Stability). It is quite another to TAKE the Lord to be such…by faith…and make Him mine. The proof of whether I believe this is found in the words, “…truth is not mine, until it becomes me.” Christ has to become ours by faith, that we should be able to live by HIS life and power.
In Psalm 55, David writes: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” (v.22) If we have made the Lord Jesus our Rock (“…He only is my rock and my salvation…” Ps. 62:2), then we have also believed that He is our burden bearer. The measure in which I believe this is seen in the ACT of casting ALL of one’s burden upon Him to bear. We are taking HIM to be our security, stability, and satisfaction. And the consistent experience of this walk of faith is known by how much, and how well, we SET the Lord before us…before, and beyond all else. HE is the great I AM…the Alpha and Omega…the beginning and the end. And, He is with us.
“O Love, that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee, I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.” Dear Lord, the Lord of the storm and the calm…give us grace to take Thee to BE to us what Thou art. Give us grace to consistently SET THEE before us, having cast all of our burdens on Thee…knowing that we shall not be moved, for Thou art our stability…our Rock. We thank Thee for the blessed calm of believing in Thee. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Love, Dad