And we often think that Jesus ‘sleeps’ through our storms as well. So, we set off to live our life without Him. And the Book, then, remains closed.
I write this blog, with the theme , “He shows us His Hand.” As I visualize the picture painted years ago of crashing waves of a storm on a lone ship, yet with further notice, the waves form His Hand with a secure hold.
But – I didn’t believe at times, even as a believer, I didn’t believe that God cared about the crisis and great ‘squalls’ of loss that came my way.
People with good intentions would say, “Just hold on.”
But there was no ‘holding on.’
There were words on my bedroom wall, passed often in the midst of each day, “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11. And I would talk to God and say,
“I don’t believe You.”
But none of this changed the fact that He, God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who knew my name before I was formed in my mother’s womb – none of my doubt changed the fact that – God had a hold on me.
So I write a blog with a ton of underlying rules, but I hear One voice, “Write for yourself, what I’ve shown you.” (Jer. 36:2),“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you …”
But, what if I truly gave up on God? What if I didn’t search for Him to show me something? What if I didn’t cry out to Him, “Jesus, don’t You care that I’m drowning?”
I don’t know. Because I did call. I called His name. I did.
“Jesus. Help me.”
So, the Book is open, to Mark chapter 4 and I read verse 9 a bit ahead of the storm:
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
And I asked God right then, ‘to speak to me now.’ And in looking beyond verse 9 of Mark 4, Jesus explains a story that He told multitudes that day.
I will include the Word of God here, but I will say, God spoke. He wasn’t sleeping, He was near. Not because I could see Him or even know ‘something’ had changed, it hadn’t at all – but you see, He didn’t ‘give’ me peace because ‘He is Peace’. He is the Peace I seek. It’s in the calling of His name.
He’s not just a ‘fair-weather’ Friend. He’s a forever Savior through the thick and the thin.
So, way before Jesus spoke the words, “Peace, be still.” In Mark 4 verse 39, He spoke to them in a story, that they forgot once the waves had hit:
“Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 1
8 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Peace is in agreeing and accepting what God says. Even when you don’t understand and your heart even bleeds, Jesus is our Peace – for now … and always.
Call Him, He answers. Jesus is His name.