9/1/23
Dear Fairview Community Christian Church,
Month after month I get more and more excited about everything God is doing here at FCCC. The Holy Spirit is actively working in our community. Can you see it? I know there may be a lot of great difficulties going on all around the world. At times it can seem pretty gloomy and it can really consume our thoughts. In the last month have you felt a great deal of stress? Have you found yourself honing in on all the negatives? It can be pretty easy to fall into pessimism but today I would like to encourage you to take a step back and try to look at things through a new light.
God of course doesn’t want us to ignore our problems and pretend like we are living in a fairyland but he does want us to change how we think and respond to difficult situations. I think of the story when the disciples were out at sea and a great storm arose. The winds picked up causing the waves to get bigger and bigger. Their small boat began to sway back and forth intensely. The disciples began to panic as they realized this storm could easily bring them down to the bottom of the sea. While all of this is happening Jesus is sound asleep. Now in one sense we can understand why the disciples would be terrified in this situation but do you remember how Jesus reacted? The disciples woke up Jesus shouting at him and said “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Jesus awoke and he rebuked the winds and sea saying “Peace! Be Still!”. The first thing Jesus says to them is “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”. One might think that Jesus would be worried about his disciples and apologize to them for not being awake to help but it becomes very clear that Jesus has another point in mind. The difference here is that the disciples had been walking with Jesus for some time now. He had been personally teaching them and they were witnesses to many miracles of healing and deliverance. They knew something about the power that Jesus had but they were still filled with much doubt. In the context of the book of Mark, Jesus had just explained to them the parable of the mustard seed. How all they needed was faith the size of a mustard seed to see tremendous things happen. It seems at this time they did not even have this faith.
This is the lesson that Jesus wants us to learn. We do not need to be afraid whatever situation arises, we only need to have faith in him. The disciples failed to realize that the Son of the living God was in their boat. The Sovereign King of the Universe, the one who made the Earth and everything in it was right there with them. It’s like being in the most secure bombshelter ever made and being terrified of a child's firecracker going off above you. So how much more so should we not be afraid knowing that the same Jesus, the same power that created the world lives inside of us? We have access to God through prayer and can call out to him at any time. The question that really remains for all of us is are we going to let all the negative lead us to doubting? Or are we going to trust God in every circumstance that he will get us through. My prayer is that we would all choose the latter!
Blessings to you all,
-Pastor Ben