Comfort and Joy!

I heard an excellent message on Mark 6:45-56 on Sunday.  The title of the message was "The Glory and Comfort of the Water Walker."  The basic points the pastor made were that:

1.  Jesus purposely commanded His disciples to get into a boat without Him, knowing a storm was approaching, and then went to a solitary place to pray. 

2.  The disciples likely struggled for hours, rowing against the storm and making little headway.   They were really struggling and it wasn't until they had been struggling painfully for quite some time that the Lord decided to step in and help them.

3.  Jesus came to the disciples in the middle of the sea - walking ON the water!  The Bible says He meant to pass by them but the pastor likened this to other portions of scripture where God "passes by" in order to show His glory - 1 Kings 19:11 ans Exodus 33:19-22.  He wasn't trying to sneak past them and beat them to the other side,  He intentionally drew attention to Himself so the disciples could see His diety - His power, His glory.  And it terrified them at first because they didn't recognize Him.

4.  Jesus tells them not to fear and to take heart because He, the I AM, was there with them.  His presence is a comfort because He is more powerful than the untamable sea.  

5.  He doesn't consume them for their weakness and lack of faith (as they - and we all - deserved) but in His mercy He speaks and comforts them.

This passage of scripture had always fascinated me but it's not the passage that I would have chosen to demonstrate the comfort in Jesus Christ that we can rely upon and that brings everlasting joy.

But now, I think it's actually almost the MOST perfect example.  We all go through hard things in our lives where we feel alone and abandoned by God.  But our Savior prays for us (John 17:9) and He watches over us (Job 34:21).  He sends us out into the world,  seemingly alone, where He knows we will fail because we are weak.  Several of the disciples were fishermen, skilled sailors and familiar with boats on the sea.  But they were incapable of rowing a boat from one shore to another because they weren't more powerful than the storm.  Regardless of how strong we are, we are not more powerful that the storms we face.   But God IS.  

God chooses to reveal His glory sometimes right in the middle of our worst storms and I think we often miss seeing it.  Our eyes are too focused on the chaos around us.  We might catch a glimpse of God's glory in a mercy here or a helping hand there but we often fail to truly appreciate the sovereign God who sent us the help we needed just when we were about to give up.

The disciples at this point couldn't truly receive the comfort Jesus offered because their hearts were not in the right place.   They were confused and shocked by what they had seen.  Jesus calmed the storm around them anyway and allowed them time to process what had just happened but it took a really long time for them to truly understand the truth about who Jesus was.

Without the storms, God's glory can't truly be revealed or grasped.  We must understand our own weaknesses before we can understand our need for God's strength.   And once we truly appreciate the glory of God, we can rest in the comfort His presence gives (because He is ALWAYS with us even when we don't sense His presence - Hebrews 13:5).  And with that comfort comes an enduring joy that can't be explained (1 Peter 1:8).