Where is your faith?



Luke 8:22-5

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side of the lake." So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, "Where is your faith?" And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, "Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?"

Raging storms will always arise on our lives. It is at these times, the Lord is helping us find our faith. Why else does he ask us where our faith is at unless he wanted us to consider that? What did we do with our faith? It seems that sometimes I have to learn the same lesson over and over again. Hence a new cycle of storms. The Lord wishes that one of those times that we have to rediscover our faith, we'll keep it in a place where we know that we will not loose it again; thereby breaking the cycle of storms.

Jesus said all that was necessary in verse 22: "Let us go across to the other side of the lake." In that instant, the disciples should have known that they were going to make it no matter what would befall them on the way. When the Lord tells us to do something, in that instant, we should know that we're going to make it. Whatever trouble will befall us along the way is negligable to God. Even in matters when after the initial call, we hear nothing else from the Lord; matters where it seems that the Lord is asleep (verse 23). We think that because the Lord spoke to us and we were obedient, that he owes it to us to continue to speak.

After all of this comes the storm! The disciples (although their Lord told them that they were to go to the other side of the lake) were absolutly sure they were going to perish (verse 24). Where was their faith? Where is my faith every time that I obey the Holy Spirit and afterward doubt or fear? Where is the christian's faith every time we have the oppertunity to help the less fortunate but can't because we are afraid that we will not be able to pay a bill? Where is our faith every time that we are led to do something the world sees as crazy, and we opt for the more stable and socially acceptable? Where is our faith?!!

Once Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples glorified him; "what kind of man is this?" They acknowledged the awesome power of the great I AM, only to doubt him again countless times afterward; the same thing that we do constantly 2000 years later.

All it takes is one time. Let's make it the next time. The next time that we refind our faith, lets put it in front of us and not take our eyes off of it. Lets make a covenant to never misplace it again.

John (not the Apostle)