Mark 4:39-40 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
When they set out, Jesus said they would cross to the other side. He would keep that promise. Remember that storms come not necessarily because we have done something wrong or been disobedient for some reason. In fact, Warren Wiersbe observed that “Jonah ended up in a storm because of his disobedience, but the disciples got into a storm because of their obedience to the Lord.” Storms are an opportunity for great victory. So, let’s go ahead and get the idea of success and failure out of our vocabulary.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
We tend to think of things in terms of success or failure and I think God looks beyond those simplistic ideas and gets to the real heart of the matter … that’s why God’s promises to us of Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 29:11 and other scriptures seem to defy our understanding. In fact, I think we can say with confidence that once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior we can drop our ideas about success and failure because our lives now belong to the One who already purchased victory with His own blood.
So, then what do we call those times when we stumble or fall? What name do we place on the storms that send us to the bottom? How about opportunity. As painful as storms can be, they are often win-win situations in which, even if our faith is shaken, as long as we go to Jesus, He will make the most of the moment, redeeming the storm so that instead of evil, there is good.
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