THERE IS NO NEED TO FEAR THE STORMS OF LIFE

Proclamation:

“And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.  And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow; and they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?  And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  And He said to them, ‘Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?’  And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, what manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”  Mark 4:37-41 (KJV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by John Mark, a nephew of Barnabas but not an apostle.  This is the gospel as he received it from Simon Peter.  He began chapter four where he ended chapter three, with Jesus by the sea side with the great crowd that had followed Him.  After He sat in the ship near the shore, He began to teach them using parables. (Mark 4:1-2)  He taught them the parable of the sower and the seed, (Mark 4:3-8) the parable of the growing seed, (Mark 4:26-29) and the parable of the mustard seed. (Mark 4:30-32)  Jesus taught them many parables that day and when the evening came He told His disciples to sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. (Mark 4:33-36)  They were crossing the sea when the great storm came upon them.  The disciples panicked and woke Jesus.  He calmed the storm and then questioned their faith.  They became even more fearful when they realized that the wind and the sea obeyed Him.

Application:

As believers we will go through many storms in this life but there is no need for us to be afraid because The Holy Spirit of The Lord God is always with us. (Hebrews 13:5)  He can calm the storms if He chooses to do so, or He can provide us with safe passage through the storms.  Either way, there is no need for us to fear the storms.  If, however, it is in God’s plan for our life to end during a storm, we know that being absent from the body means that we are present with The Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8) so there is still nothing for us to fear from the storms.