But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. (Luke 8:23-24 NASB)
These verses have both literal and deeply symbolic meaning that is too rich to miss. The word translated as "fierce gale" is lailaps, and it literally means a whirlwind or hurricane. Caught in a hurricane on the Sea of Galilee in a wooden boat was certainly an emergency. It was not just a bit of bad weather, and an experienced seaman would have been able to tell the difference. Several experienced seamen (Peter, James, and John at least) should have had more than enough knowledge and experience to immediately grasp their situation, and almost certainly did.
What amazes us about this story is that experienced seamen, who knew they were caught in a hurricane, kept trying to bail out the boat and navigate through the storm when God in the flesh was dozIng in the back of the boat. What kept them bailing instead of beseeching Jesus for help? It was not humility, that's for sure. It is pride that leads us to such foolishness, and we are no different than those storm-tossed disciples.
We talked about this in the previous post, but we do well to look at it again as confirmation. Pride will keep us where we should not be far longer than we should ever allow. It will leave us in danger when safety is just a shout away. Pride will take us to the point of perishing if we allow it. It is not wise, and it is not necessary.
Scripture is clear. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6) Dear ones, whether we have a personal health issue, an errant child, a financial crisis, or some other hurricane of life, it is past time to stop trying to manage it ourselves and relinquish our need to Jesus. He is more than able to handle whatever we face, including a mess of our own making. We have a promise of grace on which we can depend if we will only humble ourselves and allow our Lord to do what we desperately need.
Today, let us take our hurricanes to Jesus and allow Him to intervene as He sees fit. Trust Him to do what we cannot.
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The link to last night's post is here: http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/07/can-you-hear-him.html
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Our terrorist prayer focus this week is Abubakar Shekau. He is the leader of Boku Haram, a radical terrorist organization operating in northeastern Nigeria. He is particularly fond of kidnapping and murder, having kidnapped nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls (many who are still in captivity). Earlier this week, his forces captured a civilian-controlled town, murdered at least 100 people, and made the town his new headquarters. More than 22,000 have been killed in battle between his forces and the Nigerian military in the last few years. Earlier this week, two bombs in Abuja killed dozen more. Boku Haram is suspected. Please pray for an end to his reign of terror and for salvation for him and his men.
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