Are You Bailing Water?

I had the opportunity to attend a Bible class in Clyde, Texas this past Sunday.  The preacher there taught a lesson from Mark 4:35-41 which is the story of Jesus calming the storm.  He made several points which could have made a wonderful class on their own.  I wrote down four focus points.  I wish to discuss one of them in this post.  First I want us to focus on the story starting from the beginning.  Jesus has been teaching the people all day.  He has worked hard trying to lead those who have followed him.  In the book of Mark, this story follows several parables.  Mark tells us that it was evening.  Think of yourself when you have had an especially busy day, especially a day when you were serving others or teaching your children or others and you have given all you have emotionally and physically.  You are tired.  Our Lord was tired.  He got into the boat with the disciples.  As they worked with the boat to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee he lay down on a pillow in the stern of the boat.  I remember doing this as a small child when my family would go fishing on a lake.  I would always go to sleep while they fished.  The gentle rocking of the boat put him into a deep sleep.  It must have been a deep sleep for a great windstorm came along and began to fill up the boat with water but he slept on.  The disciples must have been working to bail the water out of the boat and yet water continued to pour in.  The text tells us the boat was already filling.  I don't know about you but I am not a great swimmer.  I am slightly terrified (okay, maybe a lot terrified) of ending up in deep water without a life jacket.  I would panic.  I would not gently walk over to Jesus and quietly say, "Um, Jesus, would you wake up and help us get the water out of the boat?"  No, I would be yelling, "Help! Help!  The water is coming in faster than we can keep up.  Grab a bucket.  Help us get the water out before we drown."  I would never consider that Jesus might do anything else.  The disciples question to Jesus was "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"  What an interesting question!  Still, they have no idea what Jesus might do next.  Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!"  The wind ceased and all was calm.  What just happened?!  They probably expected that he would help bail water from the boat.  Instead he calmed the storm.  Wow!

I began to wonder as the preacher talked.  How often do I ask Jesus for help with what I am working on in my life expecting just help doing what I am already doing?  Maybe I am dealing with some anger and I ask Jesus to help me stay calm by making the medicine or food work the way it is supposed to.  Maybe my marriage is struggling and I ask Jesus to make the counselor I have chosen to work things out.  Maybe we need to reach out and teach others but keep reaching out the same way we always have while feeling like we are only bailing water and not getting anywhere.  Meantime, Jesus is with us wanting to do so much more.  He does not want to bail water.  He wants to calm the storm!  I have heard the term "thinking outside of the box."  I bet the disciples never expected Jesus to calm the entire storm.  The text tells us that they were filled with great fear and asked who this man is that even the wind and the sea obey him.

I don't know what you need Jesus to do for you.  Maybe it is time to think outside of the box and realize he has the power to calm the storm if we will only believe and trust that he can.  Maybe it is time to fear God and lean more on His power.  What that is for you I don't know.  Sometimes we will not know until He has taken over.  Will you trust him?  Ask him to calm the storm within not just help bail water.  You may be surprised at His action in your life.  When He does, you can rest beside still water and know that you believe and trust in an all-powerful God and Lord.

Righteousness and guilt

I have been struggling with guilt which then becomes anger and a feeling of hopelessness.  The guilt ranges all over the place of feeling that I don't measure up as a substitute teacher, as a manager of my home, as a faithful Christian leading others to Christ, as a mother, as a financial planner for our home, as a friend, and I could go on.  I wonder how God could forgive me when I fail so often.  I struggle to keep his simple commands to love myself and my neighbor as I should.  I struggle to love him the way he deserves to be loved.  I struggle to read my Bible daily.  So many things get in the way.  Still, this morning as I read my Bible I read a chapter in Galatians.  I was trying a reading program and became frustrated that I was only trying to follow a program.  So I chose to read the letters written by Paul because I felt I needed some instruction from the New Testament.  I really needed this chapter today.  It talked about how we are righteous not because of all that we do right but because of what Christ did for us.  He went to the cross.  I must believe and have faith.  I do not have to be captive to guilt because I put on Christ when I submitted to him in baptism.  I am in Christ.  His grace covers me.  Granted I do not have license to do anything I want but I am not under the law of guilt either.

Along with my Bible reading I read a timely article in the Christian Woman magazine.  It was written by Carol Kelly James titled "My Robe of God's Righteousness".  It fit right in with my reading in Galatians 3.  She pointed out her daily struggles and choose to remind herself that she had put on Christ and was wearing the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus.  She went on to talk about putting on God's righteousness.  What a timely article!  How many of us struggle with trying to be "good enough"?  I do often.  I want to put my hope in God and Christ Jesus and know that I have been granted grace in Christ Jesus.  Want you join me as I walk beside still waters and listen quietly as God restores my soul and covers me with his robe of righteousness?

Father, thank you for your Word.  Thank you for your Son, Jesus.  Thank you for people today who can share encouraging lessons from your Word.  Thank you for covering us with your robe of righteousness.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.