Walking With Christ

Mark 4:39
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.(ESV)

Matthew 14:32
And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.(ESV)

The bible never explicitly shows Jesus calming people before He calms the literal storm around them. The one instance where Jesus calms a storm is found in Mark 4:35-41, where He rebukes the disciples, leaving them scratching their heads. In the account found in Matthew, where Jesus walks on water, some teachings suggest that Jesus often has to calm us before calming the storm around us. However, when you read Matthew 14 closely, you’ll notice that Jesus never told the storm to be calm, nor did He tell the disciples to calm down. Instead, He told them not to be afraid. The disciples weren’t worried about the weather; it was making their journey rough, but they weren’t scared of the storm itself. They got frightened when they saw someone walking on water and all decided that it had to be a ghost. The best part, to me, is that when Jesus identified Himself, their response was, “Yeah? Prove it!”

This isn’t to say that the concept of God calming us before calming the “storm” isn’t found in the bible, but the passages about Jesus walking on water during that particular storm don’t fully support this idea when read in context.

Peace or stillness is mentioned many times throughout the bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. So, where does this peace come from?

This has been on my mind lately because my life has been anything but peaceful. The proverbial storms around me are only dwarfed by the ones in my own head. The sea of doubts is constantly churned by the hurricane winds of anxiety. I experience a full range of emotions, and I feel anxiety now and then, but I usually know how to regain my balance. I know what works for me to get back to a steady state. But lately, it hasn’t been working. I recognize these storms as a time of testing. I’m not worried about my proverbial boat sinking, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get seasick from the wild waves.

True peace is a function of faith. If our faith is properly rooted in God and not another, faulty source, then through our trust in Him, He will impart His peace to us. It’s one of His many gifts to us. As it says in Isaiah 26:3-4, perfect peace comes from our trust in Him as long as our mind stays focused on Him. In Matthew, Peter began to sink when his focus shifted from Jesus to the storm. The calm-before-the-storm scenarios in the bible often result from people turning to God and placing their trust in Him and His plans before God deals with the external storms of life. It’s as if us turning to God in times of need enables Him to work in our lives during or even before those storms. Our faith in Him and trust in Him surrender control over the situation to Him. This is our free will in action. Giving the situation over to Him demonstrates our trust and faith, which acts as the catalyst that allows us to trade control for peace. When Peter called out to Jesus as he was sinking into the water, Jesus didn’t hesitate to reach out and restore him to where he was. When his focus returned to where it should have been then peace was restored.