Moments that fill us with fear can blow in faster than a spontaneous summer thunderstorm.
We were driving home from church one Sunday evening when we received a frantic call from our college-age daughter. The conversation went something like this:
“Mom! Someone has broken into the house!!”
“Heather, where are you?”
“In my bedroom! I locked the door!”
We were just minutes away so I tried to assure her to stay calm and quiet. I kept her on the phone peppering her with questions.
“What did you see? Was something missing? The TV?”
Mostly I was pondering these things out loud wondering what in the world they could have taken from our home that would have been of any value?!?
“No Mom, I did not see anything missing. But the screen in the kitchen window was pushed in and there was trash all over the floor!” There was a slight pause. “Mom, why would anyone go through our trash?!?”
At this point we were pulling into our driveway. We entered the house to confirm our suspicions. Tiny paw prints on the kitchen window and across the kitchen floor were a dead giveaway. Our four-legged bandit, aka trash panda, had pushed in the screen of the open window, gotten in the house and gone through our trash! It was strewn all over the kitchen floor. Our moment of panic turned into an eruption of laughter.
It is most difficult to remember “Faith Over Fear” during times like these. Even those who walked closely to Christ shouted, “We perish!” And as their boat was filling with water their hearts were filling with fear!
“And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish.” Luke 8:24a
So often the fear of loss is greater than the actual reality of the loss.
“Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.” Luke 8:24b
Jesus responded to their fear with the question, “Where is your faith?”
The presence of Christ can calm any raging storm. Those who had forsaken all and followed Christ stood in amazement at His power. Their moment of panic and their fear of loss was quickly turned into an awestruck fear of God.
Fear God and His awesome power. In His presence there is no fear of loss.
Bible Study Theme Verse:
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated “perish” in Luke 8:24, our verse for today.
“And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.”
Luke 8:24