The Lord Of The Storm

Theme: The Lord of the storm

Text: Job 38:1-11; 2 Cor. 6:1-13; Mk. 4:35-41

No human being can live without faith in someone or something. The difference between the Christian and the unsaved person is not that one has faith and the other does not. They both have faith. The difference between the two is the object of their faith. The Christian has put his or her faith in Jesus Christ and the Christian experience is from start to finish, a journey of faith. Through faith we come into possession of a new life and through it we walk in this new life. Today many people, including Christians, would rather believe the advertisements they see or hear about than believe what the Word of God declares. They would rather believe the drug peddlers who offer one cure for every disease under the sun than believe the Word of God. It really appears that we are prepared to believe everything but not the Word of God. If, for example, your boss were to promise you a raise in salary, you would believe him and not question it and go home rejoicing. So why do we question what God says? It is only when we believe the Word of God and act on it that it becomes a reality in our lives. It is this faith that enables us to overcome storms we face in life because Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Storm.

There is nobody in the world that will not face a storm during his or her life. But we can prepare for the storms that lie ahead by listening to God’s Word and trusting Him to fulfil His Word. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. It is not enough to just hear the Word of God; we must also act on it. Listening to the wrong things, or listening to the right things with the wrong attitude, will keep us from the truth and God’s blessing. It is very easy to think we are spiritual because we listen to one preacher after another, take notes and mark our Bibles. We can never be really spiritual if we have the wrong attitude and never practice what we hear from the Word of God. We need to be doers of the Word.

Satan always works by getting man to disobey the word of God. He uses the same tricks he used in the Garden of Eden. If we think that Satan has power these days we must realise that he even had more power before Jesus stripped him of it. We can resist him because of the victory of Christ and we need to do this if we are to lead successful Christian lives. I once read the report of a group of Christians who went to South America to witness to street children after hearing of how they were being murdered and maltreated. They took along with them all they needed but they could not make a single convert. They then made a wise decision to go to the Lord and find out why this was happening when it was He who had burdened their hearts to come to South America in the first place. During the time of confession one of the group broke down in tears asking the Lord to forgive him since he had a child he was not supporting in any way. After counselling and support from other members of the group he rang the mother the next day, apologised and made funds available for the upkeep of their child. After that their work of evangelisation took on a completely new turn and they were able to bring many street children into the Kingdom of God, more than they had even imagined. We can only glorify God when we obey Him and life is a classroom where we learn to grow spiritually. We can only see the significance of what we have learnt when we put it into practice. After learning we go through a series of examinations to see how much we have really learned. Most of us enjoy Bible study, but we often wish we could avoid the examinations that often follow the lessons. However, it is in the tests of life that faith really grows and we get closer to Christ.

In the course of our lives there are many things that arise and expose us to danger. There are storms that threaten to overwhelm us but these challenges are only to test our faith and we should not allow them to destroy us. Faith must be tested before it can be trusted. It is one thing to learn a new spiritual truth, but quite something else to practice that truth in the everyday experiences of life. The real test of faith is to trust Jesus Christ completely. But very often our response to the storms of life is not that of faith but of fear. Fear is a natural reaction to those things that threaten us but if it takes over completely it prevents us from dealing with the problem, and it can in the end, permit what we fear to destroy us.