Day Twenty: A Hurricane (Mark 4:35-41)
Devotional: Without an occasional hurricane, the world’s weather might be even worse. Fierce tropical storms play a vital part in maintaining the heat balance between the tropics and polar regions. The tropics and subtropics receive more heat from the sun than they lose by radiation. To prevent cooling of the poles and scorching of the equatorial regions hurricanes help keep the balance.
“If hurricane control were successful and none were allowed to go through their full life cycle,” says Gordon E. Dunn, former director of the National Hurricane Center at Miami, “nature would undoubtedly find some other method of maintaining the heat balance, and who can say that this new method might not be even more disastrous than the hurricane?”
The point is, storms can actually serve a positive purpose. Now, a person stuck in a major storm like a hurricane is probably not thinking about the positive purposes of a storm! They just want to survive. It’s easy for us to do the same thing. When the “storms of life” come our way, we just want to get through it. We don’t oftentimes think about the purpose God may have in our lives with the storm.
It was no different for the disciples in the boat. The storm was suppose to build their faith but instead it revealed their lack of faith. James tells us that “a storm” is the “testing of our faith” (James 1:3). It reveals if we are trusting God or not with our lives. But the verse also says that it is an opportunity for the storm to “produce steadfastness”.
It’s an opportunity to learn how to trust more deeply in Jesus. Because He’s got control over the storms, just as He did in today’s passage. When you don’t understand the storm you are facing, focus on what you do understand about God. Take time to lean into His character. Praise Him. Pray to Him. Take time to celebrate Him. What He said to the winds in today’s passage, “Peace! Be still!” Is the same thing He wants to say to us in our storms.
Be still and let the peace of Christ flow over you. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God”. Will you take time to be still today? Jesus was sleeping during the storm! Can’t get more still than that. Jesus is ruler of our lives, and He’s ruler over the storms of life. So be still and rest in Him today.
Prayer: Take time to pray for the “storms in your life”. And then go take a nice nap! Sleep is an act of faith.
Devotional: Without an occasional hurricane, the world’s weather might be even worse. Fierce tropical storms play a vital part in maintaining the heat balance between the tropics and polar regions. The tropics and subtropics receive more heat from the sun than they lose by radiation. To prevent cooling of the poles and scorching of the equatorial regions hurricanes help keep the balance.
“If hurricane control were successful and none were allowed to go through their full life cycle,” says Gordon E. Dunn, former director of the National Hurricane Center at Miami, “nature would undoubtedly find some other method of maintaining the heat balance, and who can say that this new method might not be even more disastrous than the hurricane?”
The point is, storms can actually serve a positive purpose. Now, a person stuck in a major storm like a hurricane is probably not thinking about the positive purposes of a storm! They just want to survive. It’s easy for us to do the same thing. When the “storms of life” come our way, we just want to get through it. We don’t oftentimes think about the purpose God may have in our lives with the storm.
It was no different for the disciples in the boat. The storm was suppose to build their faith but instead it revealed their lack of faith. James tells us that “a storm” is the “testing of our faith” (James 1:3). It reveals if we are trusting God or not with our lives. But the verse also says that it is an opportunity for the storm to “produce steadfastness”.
It’s an opportunity to learn how to trust more deeply in Jesus. Because He’s got control over the storms, just as He did in today’s passage. When you don’t understand the storm you are facing, focus on what you do understand about God. Take time to lean into His character. Praise Him. Pray to Him. Take time to celebrate Him. What He said to the winds in today’s passage, “Peace! Be still!” Is the same thing He wants to say to us in our storms.
Be still and let the peace of Christ flow over you. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God”. Will you take time to be still today? Jesus was sleeping during the storm! Can’t get more still than that. Jesus is ruler of our lives, and He’s ruler over the storms of life. So be still and rest in Him today.
Prayer: Take time to pray for the “storms in your life”. And then go take a nice nap! Sleep is an act of faith.
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