When Life’s Storms Threaten to Capsize Your Faith
By Jeff Cranston
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many of us to become emotionally disoriented. During this time, traditions have been disrupted, healthy habits have been disturbed, and workplaces have been completely turned inside out.
What have you been disoriented by?
Shifting your kids from in-person to online school?
Working from home or going through a layoff?
Not being able to attend a wedding?
Being sick from COVID-19 or knowing someone who is sick?
Being disoriented during the pandemic has taken its toll on many of us. How do we deal with all of this?
Let’s go to the Bible. Read Matthew 14:22-33. In this story, the storm that Jesus sent His disciples into had the purpose of displaying His glory and affirming His Lordship as the Son of God. We learn:
Sometimes Jesus directs you into the storm.
Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. – Matthew 14:22
Sometimes Jesus will direct us into storms for our good and His glory. Have you wrapped your mind around the fact that God has directed you into the pandemic storm? Why has He done such a thing? God uses the difficulties that we go through to shape us into His image, remind us of our need for Him, and to show us who He truly is.
Sometimes you feel assaulted by the storm.
“ … the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary.” – Matthew 14:24
After eight or nine exhausting hours, the disciples were stuck in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, sweaty, drenched, chilled to the bone, weary to the point that they began to wonder if they would ever make it to shore alive. At this moment, it would have been much easier to turn and go back to shore. But they stuck to it. Moving forward in obedience is always better than retreating in disobedience. If the disciples had decided to go back in disobedience, they would have missed what Jesus was doing in the midst of the storm.
Don’t bail on God now. He is doing something in this world, in this land and in your life. To retreat now would be to miss God’s best for you.
Sometimes you feel the darkness has won.
And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. – Matthew 14:25-26
When the disciples saw Jesus, they were terrified. They thought they saw a ghost! After all, it’s not every day that you see someone taking a stroll across a huge lake in the middle of a storm. We can understand their fear, can’t we?
There was never a moment in this story where Jesus was far from His guys. He knew what they were going through (He sent them into it), and when the time was right, Jesus went to the disciples walking on the sea. He showed the disciples that the very thing that caused them pain was completely in submission to Him.
The very things that have disoriented you, that have caused you pain and disappointment are in complete submission to Jesus. Whatever disorientation this pandemic has done to you, it’s good to recall that Jesus still has power over it. Sometimes you may feel that the darkness has won. It hasn’t.
Sometimes you doubt the sustaining power of Jesus.
And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” – Matthew 14:29-30
This isn’t about how much or how little faith Peter had. This story is about the object of Peter’s faith. When Peter asked Jesus to give him the power to walk on the water, he truly believed that Jesus could do that. The issue when Peter began to sink wasn’t that he lost faith in Jesus (because he immediately cries out to Jesus), but he doubted that Jesus could sustain him in the storm.
Jesus can and will sustain you in the midst of all you’re going through. Your faith will never be perfect, and at times you will doubt. But you have to remember that God is working all things for your good, and He sovereignly is in control over all you go through.
Sometimes the storms have the potential to open your eyes to the power of God.
Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. – Matthew 14:31-32
Peter got to see and experience the power of Jesus as he walked in the storm. When you squeeze a condiment bottle – ketchup, mustard, relish – you expose what is on the inside. When the storm squeezed Peter, his doubts were exposed. Jesus allows us to go through storms to expose where our faith in Him is weak. He then strengthens our faith by showing us who He is. The promise is not that the storm will stop, but that your eyes will be opened to the power of God.
The rescuing hand of Jesus is always close by.
“But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, ‘You are certainly God’s Son!’”
Let’s not miss the force of Jesus’ words. When he said—“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid”—He used an expression the disciples would immediately understand. The phrase “It is I” is the Greek version of God saying in Exodus 3:14 that His name is “I AM.”
It’s not just that Jesus is saying, “Don’t worry. It’s me. I’m not a ghost.” It’s His way of saying, “I am the Lord God of the universe. I created the wind and the waves, and I sent the storm.” And it is the Lord Himself who tells Peter to come to Him on the water. When Jesus says, “come,” you’d better go. When He says, “walk,” you’d better walk. At that moment, the smartest thing Peter could do was to get out of the boat.
This story reminds us that not only does Christ control the storm, and not only does He send the storm sometimes, but He also reveals Himself in the storm. Very often, your purest vision of Jesus Christ will come when the storms of life threaten to capsize your boat of faith.
Jeff Cranston is the lead pastor of LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, South Carolina.
