Peace Through Strength in the Promise of Christ
The Reason Why the Believer Should Not Live in Fear of the Unknown
Howdy,
It’s been a difficult and heavy couple of days at Bethany ARP Church. Death and the loss of those loved ones dear unto us is never easy, neither are misunderstandings flaring up passions from the heart. They can leave us in a vulnerable place. Part of our prayer and worship help today is going to see us take some of the teachings we spoke about in the Sunday service Bible lesson from 2 Kings 6 as well as what we have to look forward to in our time in 1 Corinthians 12 next Lord’s Day. Often we can without thinking about it sacrifice our understanding about the unity of the Scriptures by how we don’t see Christianity in what happens in the days of the Old Testament. The absolute cinema of the scene at Dothan is a clear foundation for the words that Christ will give to His disciples in the following event from Mark 4:35-41:
Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
The reaction of the disciples to what Jesus does here can be a little excused because they have only been with Him for a short amount by this point in the gospel. Their first big journey with Christ had seen them watch as He preaches to the crowds and does some healings. Nothing too crazy so far. The other part of the story that is interesting for us is how they seem so scared. Peter, James, and John and Andrew are all fisherman. They’ve been out on the water many, many times in their life. It certainly would not have been their first scary moment on the sea. Yet, one of the key aspects of what you read about is how they go from being afraid of the water to being afraid of Him! It’s a somewhat odd tale, but it is certainly something we can learn from.
The servant in the Elisha testimony in 2 Kings is like the young disciples in Mark. Both have a certain knowledge of God, but not a full one. They think they know what to expect of God, yet in each case Jehovah’s actual work is still to be seen by their heart of faith. Notice as well that with Dothan and Galilee the mercy witnessed to the doubters by Jesus and the Lord’s prophet. We can never overlook how gracious God is to us, especially in our weakness. In fact it is in that weakness that we truly come to see that all things are truly of God. The world wants you to find your inner strength, but the Spirit desires that you would empty yourself of all things that He might be the all-in-all in you. When it comes to the situation faced by the disciples on the boat and the servant in the city each needed to be reminded that the answer to their problems was to be seen right in front of their eyes, they just needed help to see it.
Same could be said for the matters we face in our own lives. How often is the greatest enemy we face not the goliaths outside, but the old man on the inside. Paul himself describes that struggle well in Romans 7. He writes, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find”. As long as the apostle sought in his own flesh the solutions in the flesh he would discover only fleshly rewards, which he himself notes . . . nothing good dwells. After Paul moves through the struggle session he helpfully notes in Romans 8, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. That’s exactly the kind of thing Jesus has in mind when He challenges the faith of His followers on the boat.
When we are consumed by the things of this world we react like the world. When we are on the boat in the sea and see the storm and the waves we fear like the world does. But when we approach the situations we face with the reminder of who is resting on the boat with us it changes everything about how we view the conflagrations rampaging around us. The same Christ who said that the gates of Hell cannot stand against the church is the same one who has said that we are held in the arms of our Heavenly Father and no created thing can snatch us out of His hands. How much more so if the winds and waves obey the voice of the Great Shepherd should we be reminded that as long as we are in the ark of God’s grace and mercy this present evil world has no power over us? That is the kind of faith that Elisha already had and he prayed that the Lord would allow the servant to have. It should be our desire that all should know the peace we have.
In closing, it does us no good to not act like Goliath is not Goliath. Faith is not ignorance nor is it an act of blindness to the nature of the spiritual or physical dangers that we face. It is instead a clear-eyed bravery standing athwart reality saying, “We believe”. We believe in the power of God. We believe that in our resting and trusting in Christ Jesus that we cannot be moved. It is the assurance of our being safely in the arms of the one who made the heavens and the earth, a certainty which is unshaken by events, for our comfort is grounded not in the flesh, but the King.
Here is another word:
https://placefortruth.org/psalm-563-when-youre-afraid-trust-in-god/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church