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"Peace in the Storm" (posted May 1, 2009)

  A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.
  But He (Jesus) was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they (Jesus' disciples) awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
   - Mark 4:37-38

The Lord's true people will meet with trials, but the Lord Jesus, though absent to sight, is present to faith, and is supreme over all the storms His people have to meet.

This touching scene is opened with the Lord's words, "Let us cross over to the other side." Attracted to Himself by our need, and drawn by His grace, we follow Him in a path that leads to "the other side"---far into those depths of glory where He has gone.

If, however, we are in company with Him, we may expect conflict, for the devil is ever opposed to Christ. Thus we read, "A great windstorm arose." Nevertheless, Jesus was with them, but He was "asleep on a pillow." In the storm He was asleep and thus apparently indifferent to the trials of His people. Such circumstances become a very real test to our faith, and like the disciples we may even begin to question whether, after all, He cares for us.

But if such circumstances are allowed to prove our faith, they also become the occasion of manifesting His supremacy over all the trials we have to meet. As of old, He "arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, 'Peace, be still,'" so today, in His own time and way, He can still every storm and bring us into "a great calm."

In the spirit of this striking picture, the apostle can write to the Thessalonian believers saying, "Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all" (2 Thessalonians 3:16). Faith realizes that whatever storms we may have to meet, the Lord is with us to give peace at all times and in all circumstances. Occupied with a great storm of wind and the waves that beat into our little ship, we may forget Christ and selfishly think only of ourselves, and then say, like the disciples, "We perish." But will any storm that the devil can raise ever frustrate the counsels of God for Christ and His people? Not one of His sheep will ever perish; all will be brought home at last.

The trouble with the disciples, as too often with ourselves, is that we have but a feeble sense of the glory of the Person that is with us. They but little realized that the Man who was with them was also the Son of God.

Hamilton Smith



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