Judges 9-10 | Luke 5:17-39

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:2-3

After Jesus performed an unbelievable miracle by taking only five loaves and two fish to feed a crowd of over 5,000 people, He made His disciples get into a boat to go ahead of Him to the other side. Matthew 14:23-24 tells us, “After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” Jesus made all of His disciples get on a boat, but while the boat was sailing in the sea, it experienced strong waves and winds against it. 

If Jesus made His disciples get into the boat, shouldn’t the boat ride have been easy with clear blue skies, the sun beaming and a strong wind blowing in the direction of the sail? Some of us may believe that following Jesus is easy. Yet, what we can learn from this event is that Jesus made the disciples get on the boat and the disciples obeyed Jesus. As the disciples sailed away, a storm started brewing. The disciples found themselves surrounded by darkness in the middle of the night, fighting against the wind and being tossed to and fro by the waves—how in the world do we make sense of this in terms of following Jesus?

The truth is: when we obey the commands of Jesus, sometimes, storms still come. It does not matter who we are, what we do or where we go, if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we have no guarantee in this life that our journey will be smooth sailing. Whether it is the enemy who seeks only to steal, kill and destroy us, whether it is some random life circumstances that we are going through or whether it is sin that we find ourselves trapped in, if we are a disciple of Jesus, we are guaranteed to have sufferings and hardships. 

But no matter what storms come our way we can face them with confidence as Jesus once said: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). If we know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, He will always be there to help us.  

When the storms come—because they will—as followers, we must not give up. We must persevere and keep going. The disciples encountered a storm in the middle of the lake on the boat, but they did not give up. They kept rowing. Like the disciples, may we not give up when we encounter the storms of life, but trust in Jesus who has already overcome the world.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, when the storms of this life come, I place my firm trust in You. Thank You for being the confidence that keeps me persevering. Praise You!