Standing in His Presence

On Thursday morning a rather intense but short storm went through the area. It went through at about 2:00 AM. Did you notice it or did you just sleep right through it. I probably would have just slept through it except that one of the thunder claps sounded as though the lightning strike was just outside my bedroom window. In fact it made the windows rattle. It certainly made me startle for just a moment.

How many of us adults sometimes get scared in storms? When you are in the yard and you see a lightning bolt in the sky I am sure most of you run for cover. Many people are so scared of lightning; they just can’t seem to function during storms. All they can do is sit in a room and tremble. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was one of those people. You see I used to think that we had to earn our way to heaven through good works and that God would punished us daily for our sins. Because of this belief, I used to be so scared that God was going to strike me dead for my sins that during thunderstorms I would literally hide from the storm, as if I could actually hide from God, and pray for God’s forgiveness as the storm rolled through. Now that sounds pretty silly doesn’t it? You bet it does. But at the time for me it was as real as sitting here and writing this.

It is so easy to get caught up in the storms of our life as well. On the way home from work on Friday my wife called me on the phone and told me that one of our cabinets in the kitchen was coming off the wall. My first reaction was, “oh great, another home improvement project.” I suggested that she take everything out of the cabinet so that if it did fall while I was on the way home, at least we would not lose the dishes.

When I got home it was much worse than I originally thought. The cabinet itself was actually separating from the back and much of the frame that held it together was cracked and coming apart at the foundation. Yes, this was much more of a problem that I had expected. I started to panic. After all, where would I find the money to replace the cabinet. No, wait a minute, I can’t just replace one. I will never find one to match. I am going to need to go buy a whole set of cabinets. After all, my wife is never going to be happy with one cabinet being different than the others. Oh my, that is going to be very expensive. Even if I do the labor myself, it is going to be very expensive. Things seemed hopeless and I had no idea how I was going to get out of this one. Then I looked over at my wife and she was not upset at all. She was just sitting there listening to me ramble. I stopped talking long enough for her to get a word in and she just said, “let me know when you are done and I will tell you my thoughts.”

I stopped talking and invited her to share her thoughts. She reminded me that a couple of years back we had a friend who was a real estate sales person who was working on a project in Northern Virginia that was converting apartments to condos. In the project they were replacing all of the kitchen cabinets and appliances that were only a year old at the time and we went and picked up a lot of the stuff and had put it in the basement to use when we finished the basement, another of those projects that just never seemed to happen. So, in the basement we had a whole set of cabinets that were going to be in the kitchenette in the basement. She then said that she really didn’t care if the one we replaced didn’t really match the others, just as long as she had some place to put the stuff that was now all over the counters.

Suddenly I realized how this fit today’s Gospel lesson so well. I am certain this is very much how the disciples felt in the middle of this storm. They felt that the situation was hopeless and that they would all surely perish in the storm, yet Jesus was just sleeping. Didn’t he understand this was important and hopeless? Why do we continue to fret over the storms in our life rather then just giving them to God and letting him command them to stop? It really reminds me of a song that I really love to listen to on the radio called, “Who am I,” by a Christian group called Casting Crowns. Listen to one of the verses:

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again
Who am I?
That the voice that calm the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am.
But because what of youve done.
Not because of what I’ve done.
But because of who you are.

It sounds pretty simple but it is very effective. Just call on the name of Jesus and He will calm the storm in you too.

A great example of this can be found in Mark 4:35-41.   It starts at the end of the day when evening comes. After a day of preaching and teaching Jesus mortal body was tired and needed rest so he suggests that they go over to the other side of the water. Thinking this is a good idea; the disciples accompany him in a boat and head for the other side. Jesus lies down for a nap while they sail across the lake. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a strong storm rises that is so intense that the boat begins to take water. Now most of the disciples were from the working class before Jesus called them to be disciples. Some were even fishermen. Surely they knew about storms at sea and had even been through a few in their days. Yet this one caused fear in them, it caused fear to penetrate their hearts. It certainly seems that their fear had paralyzed them. All they could think of to do was to go to Jesus. I would suspect that after spending as much time with Jesus as they did and witnessing all of the miracles they likely thought that being with Jesus would prevent the storms from affecting them. Maybe they were scared this time because they didn’t understand how this could be happening as long as Jesus was in the boat with them. That would certainly make the next logical step being one to go find Jesus and ask him about it.

So then they decided to approach Jesus. And notice He is still asleep as they approach Him. The storm is throwing the boat around and the boat it taking on water. Certainly Jesus is being tossed about and getting wet, yet He is still asleep. They woke Him and asked why He did not care that they were all going to die. Why is it that Jesus did not wake up during any of this? Was it real or just their imagination? How could anyone sleep through all of that? Jesus slept comfortably because He fully understood the purpose of His life on earth. He knew exactly what the Father had planned for His life and knew that His life would not end until it was time for that to be fulfilled. Regardless of what the world threw at Him, he rested easy in the assurance that God’s will would be done on earth. Now that is a kind of faith that we all could use a little more of, maybe a lot more of. When the disciples had completely lost their faith, Jesus still had a very strong grip on faith. You see I am not sure the disciples really had faith at this point.

What I think they had was hope. Sometimes we have a hard time seeing the difference but hope can be lost. When times get tough and the storms of life roll in we begin to doubt our hope. When we have faith, we don’t lose it. Faith is not the hope of life everlasting, it is a very strong knowledge that no matter what, we will have life everlasting. It is that deep assurance that no matter what happens in life, Jesus will watch over us and make sure that His will be done.

So what it really comes down to here is God’s will right? If we are sure we know what God’s will is for our life and we are on the path to fulfilling that will we know that the world really doesn’t matter much because it is God’s will that is driving us. Now I am certainly not suggesting that we stop working and paying the bills but I am suggesting that we stop worrying about the problems we seem to think are so overpowering in our lives. Take a good look around, are you on the path that God wants you to be? If you are then don’t let the world knock you off the path through troubles and hard times. If you are not, then no wonder you are scared every time the storm clouds roll in. You don’t have that same sense that Jesus had about knowing the outcome of the short lived storm will not have any effect on your purpose here on earth. Once you have that assurance, you will have the courage to stand on a golf course with a 1 iron in the middle of a thunderstorm because you have the assurance that the time has not come yet. It is then that you can truly live in the Spirit and accomplish the will of God. When you constantly worry about how the bills are going to get paid, or how you will get the car fixed, or when the next promotion is coming you just can’t focus enough to understand the will of God for your life.

This is where the disciples were, focused on the storm and lost the big picture. It is no wonder that Jesus asked them why they were afraid. After all they were in the boat with the author and finisher of life. How could they think for one minute that they would perish? Then again even if they did wouldn’t eternal life be even better after they leave this world? You would think that with the promise of eternal life in Heaven we would be eager to leave this world, yet we are not. Yet we like the disciples cling to life and fear the times when we sense the end is near. Far more often than not the fears are unnecessary and only server to further slow us down and prevent us from completing God’s work in the most efficient manner possible.

So remember the deep fear of thunderstorms I spoke of earlier. I don’t have that problem anymore. I went from hiding in closets to being able to comfortable walk across the yard at a leisurely pace in the midst of a thunderstorm. So how did I make that transition? It just went away 4 years ago. It certainly wasn’t through any form of psychotherapy. It was through spiritual therapy. It occurred the moment I realized God’s calling for my life. It came the moment that I said Yes Lord, I will do that. It came the moment that I placed my trust in God. It occurred the moment that I gave Jesus authority over my heart to do with as He wished. And like the song from casting crowns says, it came:

Not because of who I am.
But because what of youve done.
Not because of what I’ve done.
But because of who you are.

So why did it take me so many years to get it? I guess it just wasn’t in God’s timing. But what is our problem with all of this anyhow? It certainly sounds simple enough and if I had any idea of the benefits, I would have surrendered to Jesus a long time ago. Why don’t we get the message? I think it really does come down the matter of trust. Trust in God to take care of the things that we think are important. Having enough trust in God to change our hope into faith. So that is the question to be answered, do you have faith in God or is it just some unanchored hope?

Filed under: Faith, Past Sermons