Mark 4:35-41 ESV

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

This is a passage of revelation. Revelation always starts with invitation. God will never crash your life, but he will always invite you to his. In this passage Jesus invited the disciples to get into the boat with Him and go to the other side. Jesus is inviting you to go the other side with him. This is where things get tough, for all of us. When Jesus says follow me, he is asking you to join him in the boat and go to the other side, he is asking you to leave all of the stuff on the shore behind us. Our relationship with Jesus was never meant to be static, it was meant to be dynamic, moving, growing. The idea of following Jesus is more than saying I am a Christian, or I follow Jesus, we actually have to do that in our thoughts, our words and our actions, how we love, and how we respond. Following Jesus requires a radical commitment. When Jesus said, let’s go across to the other side, he was inviting them to join him on a journey of faith and growth.

In a world that is focused on experience, Jesus is asking you to “Get in the boat and follow him.” Now what he can do for you, but him. Do you choose to follow Jesus for what he can do or for who he is? Who he is, is the foundation for what he can do. As followers of Jesus our deceleration should be, “I am here to be radically committed to Jesus and follow him.”

Look at Jessus as the storm is coming up. He is asleep in the front of the boat; Jesus is wiped out. The storm got so bad the disciples began to fear for their lives. And Jesus is still sleeping. Jesus was so confident in his relationship with the father that he was sleeping through the storm. The disciples wake him up, he calms the storm and asks them why are you so afraid? Jesus is asking us that very question now. As the storms rage around us, as the world turns darker and darker, Jesus is asking, “Why are you afraid?” What Jesus is really doing is reminding is that we are not alone in the boat, he is with us, he gets it, he gets us because he has been in the storm.

As the storm rages around us, as many are fearful for the outcome of an election and beyond, we can take a posture of rest, you won’t be able to change the outcome of an election, a storm or issue, but we can stand on 2 Timothy 1:7 that tells us that we have the spirit of God in us, the same spirit that was present at creation, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that was given to us. A spirit that gives us the ability to rest in the storm.

No matter what happens in this life, we do not have to be fearful of the storm because our foundation is Jesus and the Word. Choose to say to the storm, “Peace be still” and take a posture of rest, not of fear.