But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves:for the wind was contrary….. of a truth thou art the Son of God.
- Matt. 14:24-33
The storms won’t abate, the wind won’t cease, yet we overcome. When circumstances in life become difficult, when things get hard, we need to remember that Jesus does not panic and he is right there with us. He promised He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will lead us safe through.
We need to take authority over our emotions first. Focus our heart and mind on Jesus and His word more than the fear and doubt. We decide to trust God’s Word, even when our emotions contradict it. The Word of God will divide soul from spirit (Heb 4:12). It separates spiritual truth from soulish emotions, as we renew our mind.
Many of us have seen Jesus, we hear His voice, but still during times of trials and tribulations, struggle, wondering if we failed or doubting whether what we heard was from God, wondering, what we are doing wrong, maybe, we are not doing anything wrong, we just need to keep doing what God tells us to do and continue to rely and trust God. Run the race set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Keep seeking God, even though we do not understand what’s happening (Matt. 6:25-34). God will give us wisdom and understanding in the situation.
The devil wants us to stop reading and worshipping God, but as we sing and praise God in the midst of our problems or in the presence of our enemies, singing louder than our unbelief, the devil will regret even pointing his sword at us, just as Goliath pointed his sword at David, the sword the giant pointed became the sword David used to cut his head with. God inhabits the praises of his people. All Heaven comes to fight for us. Praising God is one of our weapons.
Nothing can overcome the Word of God when it is lifted up as a standard in our life. The devil always tries to challenge what we believe about the Word, as it is the Word of God he is after. The devil tempted Jesus on the mount, Jesus answered, “it is written” and quoted the Word of God (Luke 4:4,8,12). The Word of God becomes the (Dunamis) power of God in us.
God allows trials and tribulations in our life to make us stronger, not to hurt us. God is right there with us in our trials. God placed us on Earth to succeed. Our faith is not to make the trials and tribulations go away, but to get us through them. Jesus is the one who builds us up. It is God’s work; we need to have faith. Casting all our care upon him, trusting him. (Proverbs 3:5,6)
James 1:2-4(The Passion translation) says, “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy you can. For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things, until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.” We cannot pass a test when we don’t take one.
Placing our faith in Jesus we need to be courageous, changing our attitude and face the problems, rather than run from them. (2 Tim.1:7). God had not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. Faith and fear are two opposing forces. Fear is an emotion which paralyses our will. When fear is present, faith cannot act.
A hero is not without fear, he simply just refuses the counsel of his fear and chooses to stand firm. We can overcome fear only by knowing and trusting that Jesus is with us always. Jesus promised,” I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt 28:20) Peter chose to overcome fear when he stepped out of the boat and walked on water. Peter said, command me to come to you Lord, if it is you. Once Jesus said, ‘come’, he walked out boldly. We build our faith in God by putting it back on Him, so He can build us up in His faith.
But like Peter, most times we too take our eyes off of Jesus and go from faith to fear. Peter knew who to call upon for help when he found himself begin to sink.
As we rely on Jesus we too get through our trials, overcome and destroy them. We become stronger for the next attack. (Luke 22:32) Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would be strong. He did not command Satan to leave. Jesus prays for us too, (John 17:15,26) that we would stay faithful to Him, no matter what come. When our ability stops, God’s ability goes on, and keeps us at peace through our storm. Jesus wants His faith, that is in us, to overcome the problems, so we restore people who have no faith to faith in God. When we do whatever God tells us, we can come out the other side victorious. He calls us in the very place we have failed and have overcome to teach others not to do the same thing.
The stormy waves will not abate, the strong winds will blow, the challenges will arise, we will all have moments of great faith and moments of sinking sometime or other in our life, we just reach up and know that Lord Jesus is there to pull us back up. We get up. We arise, we shine for our light has come and the Glory of the Lord has risen upon us. We only believe and have faith in God through it all.