His Presence Alone

His Presence Alone

Matthew 8:23 – As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 – And a great storm developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was asleep. 25 – So they came and woke him up saying, “Lord, save us! We are about to die!” 26 – But he said to them, “Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was a dead calm. 27 – And the men were amazed and said, “What sort of person is this? Even the winds and sea obey him!”

This was a storm variant so severe the disciples, with fearful certainty, thought they were on the brink of death. Name your storm. Is it Covid-19? Is it social security? Is it national security? Is it a hurricane? Is it hunger? Name the storm variant that has got you so scared you’d do anything to make it stop – and then remember Jesus and this story. The disciples couldn’t do anything to stop the water from swamping the boat and they were fearful of riding it out any further and there they saw Jesus asleep.

He was there with them but He was asleep. The slumbering presence of the Savior alone was not enough to quell their fear – the little faith they had would not allow His presence alone to be a comfort to them. The amazing thing to me is that it would have; His presence alone would have comforted them had their faith in Him allowed it.

We must realize that nothing we do can make the storms stop or prevent the waters from swamping our boats – and when we pray with such panicked fervency as if Jesus must be asleep up in the kingdom of heaven – we forget that He left us with a comforter called the Holy Spirit and also forget that we have multiple volumes of an amazing book called the Bible – which tells us His entire plan from beginning to end!

Let us not be overcome with desperate panic but with confident prayer reach out to Jesus who commands the winds and the sea; who commands the infinite variants of Covid-19, no matter how it originated; who commands the economy; who commands the rain – but most of all He can calm the storms of fear raging within our hearts.

Charles F. Brown wrote the words to this beloved song called “Part the Waters” –

When I think I’m going under, part the waters, Lord

When I feel the waves around me, calm the sea

When I cry for help, oh hear me Lord

And hold out Your hand

Touch my life

Still the raging storm in me.

Here is the youtube link to an arrangement of the song that my parents played often when I was little:

Let the raging storms in your life be stilled by our loving Saviour, Jesus Christ, today!