Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Matthew 4:39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
LIGHTNINGS FLASH AND THUNDERS CRASH
How little we know, even of what tomorrow will bring, much less the rest of our lives! We often speak of our most scientific weather forecasts in terms of a "percentage of chance." "There is a fifty, or sixty, or thirty percent chance of precipitation," we say. And often we make our day-to-day plans knowing that there is a chance we may have to change them due to unpredictable weather.
But there are some storms that we know will come. Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33). "If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!" (Matthew 10:25). After Paul had been stoned and left for dead in Lystra, he arose, went to Derbe and then back to Lystra, strengthening the believers and saying, "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
There is one other thing that we can know with certainty: He who rebuked the storm on Galilee is living still, and with Him we are safe. He who would not break a bent reed is stronger than the mightiest storm we will ever face. A terror to His foes, He still "gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart" (Isaiah 40:11).
In Thine arms I rest me;
Foes who would molest me
Cannot reach me here.
Though the earth be shaking,
Every heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear.
Lightnings flash And thunders crash;
Yet, though sin and hell assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 347:2)
