The Caterpillar Flies!

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21).

The Book of Job is the story of a wealthy and successful community leader named Job. He was a successful and righteous businessman with huge holdings of livestock and real estate.

One day Satan came before God and asked him, “Where have you come from?” Satan replied, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” God said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Notice that God pointed Job out to Satan! God gave Satan permission to put Job through a trial of adversity. Job’s herds were stolen, his servants were murdered, and all of Job’s children were killed by a sudden tornado.

Through his trial of adversity, he grows in strength, wisdom and faith. His entire perspective on God is transformed by his suffering. He was even accused of sin by his closest friends. We must get beyond the immature notion that God is interested only in making us healthy, wealthy and happy. More than anything, He wants us to be like Christ. And the road to becoming like Christ often leads through the wilderness of adversity.

Will He Deliver?

Matthew 8.24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.

Are you in the midst of a storm that has come out of nowhere? Are you desperate and fearful of the outcome of the situation? Have you looked for a way out and found none? You expected God to deliver you, for after all you serve in all the right church comittees and give your tithe regularly, without fail.  Where is He? Does He not hear? Does He not see?

Jesus’ disciples once faced a situation very similar to this. They had left their all and followed Jesus. Now they were sailing in the direction their Master Jesus told them to. In fact, he was right there in their midst – sleeping, while they were face to face with a life and death situation! Did he not care? What were they to do?

Matthew chpater 8 Verse 26 records Jesus response to their panic. “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.’

Jesus  calls attention to the fact that the disciples had ‘little faith’.  A quick look at the previous verses in the same chapter tells us that the diciples had just witnessed multiple miraculous healings. Jesus however is only impressed with a centurian’s Great Faith. (read here Verses 10-11) . Jesus allowed the furious storm to lash against the disciples  to teach them an important lesson on faith.

Jesus asks them ‘why are you so afraid“? Implied in the questiou is another question, “Do you not know that I am with you and nothing can harm you when I am there?” Jesus expects us to have an unshakable assurance of His Omnipresence in our lives and the assurance that nothing can touch us without His knowledge.

Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, and the sea became calm. Jesus taught not only thru words but also thru actions. He shows  us what action we are to take when unexpected storms upset our lives. We are to take up our victory position, that Jesus has already won for us on the cross. Then we are to speak to (rebuke) the adverse situation with the measure of faith given unto us.  Jesus assures us that if we have faith we can command even a mountain to move out of our way and it will. So speak to the storm raging in your life today to stop and it will.