Not Every Storm Calmed

Not Every Storm Calmed

Scripture reading: Matthew 14:22-32
Focus verse: Matthew 14:28-29 – “Lord, if it is you,” Peter replied, “Tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water to Jesus.

A few weeks ago I had the experience of riding on a passenger motor boat on a very stormy lake. I didn’t like it and I prayed that it would calm down but it was never calming but instead getting worse. I was tempted to think thank God is not listening to my prayers and I thought I really needed to begin confessing any sins in my life if this was the reason my plea was not being answered according to how I wanted it. So tough it was that I began to think of what’s next for my family if die then this verse of Jesus walking on water came to me. God spoke to me in midst of the storm and told me that not all storms are to be calmed, others you will walk over them as Jesus did. At one time He calmed the storm but on another note He walked over them and gave Peter the power to walk over them too and we too must prepare ourselves with the same mind.

Storms are part of our everyday life. We have storms of sicknesses, rejection, divorce, separation, poverty, shame, death, persecution among others. Many at times we pray that God would lift them out because they seem too heavy for us to bear. We feel much pain when our physical health is deteriorating and we find hard when our needs constrains us. Yes, it’s ok to pray for God take out the condition from us but at the same time we need to prepare our hearts and mind to be ready to accept what is God’s will for us. Unlike other disciples in the boat, Peter became different from the other eleven disciples since he is the only disciples who walked over water. Storms of life can make us be different from others in our faith and it can be a way that God uses to make us be different from others. Our storm experience can be a source of motivation for them who would go through them some day. Storms make to rely on God and see him as our only source of help. We trust him more for his help.

Paul, 2 Cor. 1: 8-9 – We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on our strength but on God, who raises the death. Also in 2 Cor. 12:7-9 Paul indicates that he was given a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment him and keep him from becoming conceited because of the surpassing great revelations. Three times he prayed for God to take it away but God told him that His grace is sufficient for him, and that His power is made perfect in weakness. Paul finishes by saying that “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ power may rest on me.” 

Pastor Eliazar Wambo
Makira Baptist Church, Mfangano Kenya