God spoke through the prophet Hosea and said, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge….”1 Many times God’s people lack knowledge in specific areas which causes them to experience failure in those areas of their lives.
So this is a defining moment for anyone, anywhere who will receive the wisdom in this letter…
In
Mark 4, Jesus taught us the parable of the sower, after He taught us
about getting on the other side of our problems, situations or
circumstances.
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”
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. 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?”2
When you look at the reaction of the disciples, it is another example of what we so often see in them—a “give-up mentality.” They seemed to have the attitude of “quit”, instead of “let’s push through!”
And
that’s what we see here. They had the audacity to imply to Jesus that
they were going to perish—just another way of saying, “We’re going to
fail.”
“Lord, apparently we care more than you do about whether we’re going to fail or not.” Failure was on their mind because their eyes were on their circumstances. Just
because Jesus had, and has, a seemingly “I-don’t-care-attitude” about
our situation…doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us or that He will let us
fail!
Jesus
knew He had authority, and the truth is, He figured after three years
of relationship with these men, some of Him would’ve rubbed off on
them, so they also would’ve recognized they had His authority, too.
When
Jesus was in the boat asleep, you can tell where His focus was—it was
in peace, because you can’t give away what you don’t have. So when He
finally does respond—and He’s never too late, He’s always on time—He
calmed the situation with words that were filled with dominion.
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!”3
Yes, Jesus is unconcerned about our potential failure, because He won’t let us fail. We also will find ourselves with a careless attitude when we put our focus on Him, instead of what’s happening around us.
I
believe the heart of the issue was not Jesus’ apparent inactivity. The
real dilemma was that the disciples forgot what Jesus said before He
went to sleep: “Let us cross over to the other side…” (verse 35).
They
forgot to put their faith in His promise. Many times we forget to put
our faith in Jesus’ words. When the storm arose, the disciples allowed
Jesus’ words to slip. What circumstance, situation or problem, what
storm has risen in your life that has caused you to lose His promise of
“Let us cross over to the other side…”4
At this time, keep your heart immersed in what God is saying about this season of your life. He said, “Let us cross over to the other side.…”5 Guess what? The next chapter (5) starts out, “…Then they came to the other side.”6 Jesus made good on the words He gave them, and He will do the same for you and me…
Releasing the power of possibility!
1 Hosea 4:6
2 Mark 4:35-38 NKJV
3 Mark 4:39-41 NKJV
4 Mark 4:35 NKJV
5 Mark 4:35 NKJV
6 Mark 5:1 NKJV