2020 - 4/24 #19 - Not out of the Way

Join us today in reading Ruth 1-3; Mark 6:30-52 and 1 Corinthians 14:26-40.

I’m Reid Ferguson and this is Through the Word in 2020.

Every time I read this account of Jesus walking on the water in the midst of the storm in Mark 6, or His previous calming of the storm 2 chapters earlier - I am filled with hope and encouragement.

It’s not just that sometimes He actually calms the storms in our lives - but more the reminder that He is master of all those things outside my control. Even the most threatening.

I need to be reminded of that over and over.

He knows that. And so I take it, it is no coincidence these 2 accounts appear so close to one another. He knows our souls need the repetition. That we don’t get it the first time.

My capacity to forget His track record and the revelation of His power, goodness, mercy and grace seems to run through my soul like water through a sieve.

It is in His abundant graciousness that He repeats such things over and over.

So in revisiting this account today, note first how our Christ accommodates our weaknesses and infirmities.

In this case of the disciples caught in the storm, Jesus would have gone before them, leading the way to shore and safety - but the immediacy of their fear and stress catches His heart.

So rather than simply leading them on, He stops, enters the boat with them AND speaks a word of comfort to them. Then, as if all of that is not enough, He also stills the storm.

How much He knows our pitiful state. How willingly He stoops to help us. One would have thought this would be an occasion for Jesus to rebuke them for their lack of faith. After all, hadn't He stilled the storm before?

But not so our Savior. Tenderly, willingly, accommodatingly, He shifts to meet the exigent circumstances they faced.

How wonderful He is! 

Note too how they misapprehended Him and thought Him simply an apparition.

I don’t know about you, but I do this all the time. I fail to recognize Him in the midst of my storm. But He is there whether I perceive Him rightly or not. He never fails to be right in the very center of my deepest cares, concerns and woes. Especially those so outside of my own control .

So what are we to make of the statement in vs. 48 that Jesus “meant to pass by them"?

As with them, so with us: Neither their trials nor ours are the end of God's dealings, but merely one place along the path of His plan.

We often make our trials (and their relief) the end point. He does not.

He is still on His way toward His eternal goals. And our trials and difficulties are not out of His way - but directly in His path. They are neither incidental, nor the whole story. And He meets us there, where we least expect Him.

But He does not intend to stay there, nor for us to, nor did He alter His course in the process.

This is a most amazing truth: Our woes always coincide with His path, and His path always leads beyond our woes.

May the Lord grant us the grace to always keep the two of those things in view.

Let that soak into your soul today Christian.

God bless. And God willing, we’ll be back next Monday.