Mark 4:37

S A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

O Jesus calms the storm and goes on to say “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were fearful, they saw the waves , the howling wind, the boat struggling in the water just to stay afloat and they must have thought “We are goners! Why isn’t Jesus helping us when we need him the most. We are going to sink and die and he is sleeping!” They were in a terrifying situation and all they could see was the impossible storm they faced.

A Life can sometimes feel like this. We think “where is Jesus when I need him. I’m sinking and he has left me”. I faced this very thing about a year ago. I felt very alone as I entered a difficult time in my life dealing with an issue in my childhood. How could God abandon me in my darkest hour. One day, as I cried out to him, he gave me a picture of a dark wasteland of jagged rock and cold wind. As I saw myself standing there, the aloneness of this place he was showing me cut down to the deepest parts of my heart and made the pain I was going through that much worse. This was my storm. I looked around to find no life only emptiness. I looked around a second time and there was Jesus standing beside me calm and strong with nothing but peace and care in his face. At that moment I felt in my heart him telling me “you are not alone, you were never alone, and I will never leave you, I will carry you through this”. Like the disciples who lost sight of who was in their boat, we can lose sight of who is in our boat as well. He reminded me that he was in my boat and he had been there all along. I didn’t need to fear because he is bigger than my darkest hour and any storm I have to face. I wrote that picture down in my journal and it continues to remind me that my God is more powerful than any wave that comes crashing over my life. That doesn’t mean I get to avoid hard times, it means I have faithful arms that hold me and guide me through them.

P Lord, thank you for your faithfulness when I needed you the most. Sometimes the storms I face seem overwhelming and hopeless and I forget who’s riding them out with me. I know I can trust you to always be there. Help me to be brave enough to stretch out my hand and let you guide me through my dark hours and into the light.

In Jesus Name Amen

Amen

1. This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Jennifer Garner, Journal Entry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.