FOCUS ON JESUS
Mark 4:36-37
36. "And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
37. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. "
Verse 36, informs that the multitude was sent away and Jesus and His disciples set sail. From the biblical account, the commencement of the journey was smooth, and no doubt enjoyable. For Jesus was with them. I can just imagine how much the disciples cherished those moments with their beloved Master, sailing on the calm waters. Psalm 16:11 is very reassuring and delightful. It states, "..... in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
Verse 37 introduces a drastic change of atmospheric conditions. A great storm developed. The winds were boisterous and the waves were turbulent. The raging waves were furiously lashing against the boat and filling it with water, to the point that the boat was full. The terrified disciples struggled relentlessly to keep the boat afloat, but they were gradually losing the battle and the tumultuous storm was gaining on them. The disciples were skillful, experienced sea-fearers; but they were no match for the violent elements, as the daylight gave way to the darkness of night.
Sometimes, life can become stormy. It can be menacing and tempestuous to the point, that the very thing that has kept us afloat is now sinking. It seems as if we are quickly going under. Like the disciples, when faced with such situations, we tend to seek out our own solutions for the problems and consequently fail miserably in our all efforts. As it were, our sight takes over and our faith is 'thrown to the winds'.
Like the disciples, we forget that Jesus is with us; we forget that He has promised to be with us until the end of the world, and we forget that He is in control of the affairs of our lives. There are some storms in life that are unavoidable. Our attitude to them is the key to our survival. There is a line of a chorus that says, "With Jesus in the vessel, we can smile at the storm, as we go sailing on". We are misguided and needless to say, defeated when our focus is in the wrong place.
Our focus must never be on the storm, instead, it must remain on Jesus. He is the Christ in the crisis. May we pause, stop the fighting, grab hold of faith, and give the battles to Jesus. He is the never-failing Conqueror.