Walking With Christ

(Part 3 of 3)

Mark 4:38  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.  And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”(ESV)

The disciples were afraid.  That part was reasonable.  The storm was real.  The boat was filling with water.  Experienced fishermen believed they were in serious danger.

But listen carefully to what fear made them say.  “We are perishing.”

Then something worse:  “Do you not care?”

Fear first predicted the outcome.  Then fear interpreted the character of Jesus.

That’s where fear becomes especially dangerous.

The disciples weren’t calling to Jesus from another shore.  Jesus was in the boat.

The One they accused of not caring was physically present with them in the storm.

They hadn’t lost Jesus.  They’d lost sight of what His presence meant.

Jesus stood, rebuked the wind, and commanded the sea to be still.

Then He asked them:  “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

The storm was never proof that Jesus didn’t care.  The danger was never proof that they were going to die.

Yet fear joined those ideas together.  We still do that.

“This hurts, therefore God must have abandoned me.”

“This prayer wasn’t answered the way I wanted, therefore God isn’t listening.”

“I don’t know how this ends, therefore it must end badly.”

“I can’t see what God’s doing, therefore God must not be doing anything.”

Fear takes what we can see and uses it to explain what we can’t.

Then it begins telling us who God is.

That’s much more dangerous than simply being afraid.

Cain looked at his punishment and predicted death.  Israel looked at the promised land and predicted disaster.  The disciples looked at the storm and questioned the heart of the One sitting beside them.

In every case, fear claimed knowledge it didn’t possess.

That may be why Scripture repeatedly tells us not to live by fear.

Fear isn’t merely an emotion.  Unchecked fear becomes an interpreter.

It tells us what circumstances mean.  It tells us what tomorrow holds.

Eventually, it may even tell us what God thinks about us.  But fear isn’t qualified to speak for God.

Sometimes God answers our predictions exactly as He answered Cain:

Not so.