Do We See God in Little Situations?
A good part of our failure as followers of Christ lies, it seems, in our inability to see our mighty Savior as One who is interested, and capable of helping, in the little situations of everyday life. Our thoughts of Him, in relation to our need, are on such a grand scale that the ordinary problems of today have no place in the picture. Quite readily we see Him stretched in agony on the cross for our sins, but we cannot so readily see Him concerned about how we are going to make the paycheck reach to pay the bills or how we are going to manage through a long layoff period. We have difficulty seeing the great God of our salvation being concerned about why the boss should not agree with our idea instead of giving acceptance to a lesser idea than our own. We don’t see Him concerned over a neighborhood dispute. We don’t see Him anxious over a marital spat.
The Greatness of God in Little Situations
But the greatness of the God of our salvation lies in this, that He can be and is concerned about the minute problems of the humans that inhabit this planet. He assures us that the divine inventory of our make-up is very carefully made, numbering the very hairs of our head. He tells us that if He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, “God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else?” (CEV Romans 8:32) And as One, who in every respect was tempted as we are, He is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses” (NKJV Hebrews 4:15). He knows human weaknesses, and is in sympathy with us.
Our Faith Does Not Match Divine Potential
The fact that we often fail to find help from such a mighty and yet sympathetic God lies not with God’s inability but with our little faith. Our faith does not match the potential of God’s help. We forget for the moment that He is adequate and that He is interested in every detail and every problem of our life. With us there is often “little faith,” but with Him there is always a great power to help—even in our weaknesses.
This we learn also from looking to the shore of the Sea of Galilee and seeing how Jesus demonstrated in a miraculous way that Christ triumphs over human weaknesses.
I
Human Weakness Needs Divine Help
The Littleness of Faith Dramatized In Many Situations
Our weaknesses were dramatized at the moment out there on the Sea of Galilee when, Christ walked on water. Way past midnight, Peter sees the gust of wind and is afraid. He began to sink and cried out, “Lord save me!” This cry serves to highlight what was so much in evidence at that time in Jesus’ Galilean ministry: littleness of faith all around.
So many things demonstrated the “little faith” of those around Him. His own countrymen in the Galilee area took offense at Him and would not believe, so that Jesus marveled because of their unbelief.
Multitudes followed Jesus’ ship from shore and appeared to the Master as “sheep without a shepherd,” He had compassion on them. He taught them, He healed their sick, and He fed them with five loaves and two fish. But then they misunderstood Him and wanted to make Him king. So He had to send them away. How little did His patient instruction and His healing hand and His blessing of the loaves mean to them when that day was ended! No doubt, when Jesus went up into the hills by himself to pray that night, this grossly materialistic multitude was the burden of much of His praying.
The same day the disciples of John were faced with a grave crisis in their lives. John the Baptist was executed by the spineless Herod. They had performed the sad but loving task of committing his body to the ground. When that was done they came and told Jesus. Without doubt, Jesus knew of the problems and the doubts that now tortured their minds. And we can hardly doubt that Jesus’ prayer on the mountain that night was for these disciples of John too.
His own disciples had just returned from a preaching mission that day. They had been very busy casting out devils, anointing the sick with oil and healing them, and preaching repentance. Now as they came to Jesus, they were just bubbling over with so many experiences to tell Jesus. Hearing them, He invites them to come away by themselves to a lonely place and rest a while (Mark 6:31). He knew what they did not know just then: that to continue their active ministry, to face the many challenges of tomorrow, to meet the problems and not to fail, they needed the strength that can be found only in quiet communion with God.
Littleness of Faith Recognized
Perhaps they didn’t realize this at the time. They didn’t see the greatness of their need or the littleness of their faith until the events of that evening and the early morning hours unfolded before them.
The very first thing that happened, after their proposed retreat had been interrupted, was that the disciples found themselves completely unable to relate Jesus’ help to an ordinary problem of life. In fact, they thought of every other possibility but Jesus’ help. One thought was to send the crowd away to the villages before night closed in. They also examined their resources and came up with the despairing answer that their treasury was insufficient to feed so many, even if there were a source of bread at hand. They were stumped because they failed to take into consideration their greatest source of help, their Lord, the very Son of God. And then the abundance of His provision —12 baskets full of leftover! – surely must have shamed them for there littleness of faith.
Later, on the angry sea, the disciples had been making little headway against a strong wind. Almost exhausted with rowing through most of the night, they suddenly were confronted with the unexpected. They thought they saw a ghost, but really it was Jesus walking on the water toward them. Result? They were terrified. They cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus demonstrated that He could cope with the unexpected and the unknown. He called out, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” How foolish they all must have felt to have feared the One who alone could calm their fears in the face of the terrible and the unknown!
Then there was Peter’s demonstration of boldness of faith at first and then his littleness of faith. When he asked permission to go out on the water with Jesus, permission was granted. But a sudden gust of wind on the stormy lake blew a big hole in Peter’s faith. His confidence was shaken. He began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me.” Immediately he was pulled back to the surface. As they walked together to the ship, how very sheepish Peter must have appeared to the others for not remembering out there that “even the wind and the sea obey Him.”
Our Faith Found Little
But Peter and the others really are not different from us, perhaps somewhat in degree but not in kind. For it is our faith that is found to be little when we fail to call on the Helper that stands always so ready with His help.
In Meeting Daily Needs
We fail when we assume that Christ is insufficient for, or inattentive to, our daily needs. We give evidence of this failure of our faith when we do not offer up to Him in prayer each day’s problems, asking His divine guidance and help in our work, in the management of our household, in our social relationships, in family cares, and in our personal problems. Or do we turn to Him at the beginning of each day, as we ought, with the request that we may be kept “from sin and every evil, that all our doing and life may please Thee?”
In Facing the Unknown
What about the unknown and the unseen? By these we mean the problems, real or imagined, that lie ahead in the weeks and months to come. Do we commend our future days into the hands of Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever? And when the day of our imagined trouble arrives, how often are we, like the disciples on the lake, put to shame by the sudden realization that we need not be afraid but can take heart because Christ is present with us!
In Facing Sudden Emergencies
How often do we not despair of help, as Peter did, sure that we are sinking, sure that the world is too much with us. We see the forces of nature, or the mounting pressures of daily life, or the overpowering forces of sin closing in on us, and our hearts are terrified. Why? Because we forget momentarily that He who can help is by our side at all times, He who calmed the tempest and who lifted Peter from the cold depths of the Sea of Galilee.
Yet God Does Not Spurn Us for Our Little Faith
The wonder is that God can still use us as we are, with all our weaknesses and failings, that He still wants us and yearns for us. Yet He could take Peter and Philip and Andrew and make of them apostles, His own ambassadors. He calls us children, though we have time after time proved disobedient and unfaithful. And more, He offers to the world the treasures of the Gospel in “earthen vessels” like you and me, who are so easily chipped and cracked around the edges of our faith. Have you ever wondered why God entrusts to us, who are so often negligent and insufficient for our task, the responsibility of proclaiming the news that angels would be honored and delighted to bring to men?
The only answer to this riddle is the revelation that He loved us and gave Himself for us that He might sanctify and cleanse us and “present us” before Himself in splendor, “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”
Furthermore, and this brings us to our second point, He wants us ever to be reminded of our own insufficiency and of the sufficiency we can find in Him.
II
Our Divine Helper is Sufficient for All Our Needs
Two Pictures as Reminders of His Help
Christ our Helper, wants us to keep two pictures of this Gospel in mind and to remember that He can triumph over all human weaknesses. First, see Christ in solitary prayer. See Him in solitary prayer for you. Often, when the events of the day crowded in on Him, He left off His busy ministry of preaching and healing to retreat into a quiet place for prayer. Now we must see Jesus as our divine Intercessor, the One who knows all our burdens and problems. And as we pray, He prays with us at the right hand of God, interceding for us before the Father’s throne.
But do we retreat with Him in prayer? Do we seek His help for the vexing problems of today? If Jesus found repeated retreats for prayer necessary in His ministry, should we not all the more feel the need for seeking His strength and help in prayer?
Look at this picture also: Jesus appearing as if from nowhere to reach out His hand to help in time of need. When the disciples were terrorized by what they thought was an apparition, their hearts were comforted to realize suddenly that Jesus was there. And when Peter was sinking, Jesus was right there at his side to reach out a rescuing hand. So we need to live with the consciousness of His presence always. We need the constant assurance that with Him in the ship of our life the fury of the winds of doubt and despair subside, and our soul is at peace. With Him in command, the ship of our life sails on serenely. For He reminds us, “I am with you always,” as He assured those disciples then, “It is I; have no fear.”
Hear His Appeal
Do we not hear Him appeal to us, as if He were standing beside us today: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My victorious right hand”? (Isaiah 41:10). And with outstretched hand He assures us, “For I, the Lord, your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, Fear not, I will help you.”
When we must accuse ourselves of our little faith, let us remember to turn Him in prayer. He is truly the Son of God, and we shall find in Him an ever-present Help in all our weaknesses. May we always remember, that it is in Him, that we may gain strength. Amen.
