Skylar's Blog & Podcast

Have you ever been in a huge storm? I can remember one day when I was in middle school sitting upstairs looking through winter clothes with my family. We were in Indiana and it was tornado season and a huge storm was about to hit, but the tornado sirens had not gone off yet. So, we continued rummaging through clothes. After a while we went back downstairs, turned on the TV and found out there was a tornado WARNING for our city! The next day we found out a HUGE tornado had hit our city and had devastated several parts of it. I had never been so thankful! We could have easily died while upstairs if the tornado had made its way towards our house, but God protected us. In Matthew 8 the disciples are sailing with Jesus when a HUGE storm hits them. What makes the situation worse is the ship they're in is quite tiny. I'm sure you can imagine being a tiny ship as a huge storm tosses it back and forth. The waves the storm has created are crashing onto the deck and your ship seems to be sinking. The disciples are panicked to say the least, so they turn to the only person who can save them, Jesus. They wake him up from his nap (so inconvenient) and fill him on the fact they're all about to die! Jesus gets up, looks at his disciples and says something that hits home immediately: "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" What a question! I can't think of anybody who would be calm while their boat slowly sinks under a massive storm. However, Jesus asks them, "Why are you afraid?" Why would Jesus come down so hard on his disciples when they were acting as any human being would act? I think it's because Jesus expects more out of us. He desires us to trust him COMPLETELY! Lying under the disciple's panicked request were hearts that didn't fully believe Jesus had everything under control. So, now onto us. It is obvious our country seems to going through some hard times financially, and there are probably hundreds or thousands of other problems we are facing as well. This leaves us in a very important situation. It is in these times that we can build character...that we can build faith. Jesus wants us to trust Him...even if our boat is half full of water. You can decide to trust our God, or you can try and run around worrying about everything. You know what God wants, and the storm is almost here...what will you do?