A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers

Mark 4:35, and 37, “And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, ‘Let us pass over unto the other side.’ And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that is was now full.”  The Sea of Galilee is highly susceptible to storms.  This body of water is 13 miles long, only 7 miles wide, but it is 150 feet deep.  The shoreline is 680 feet below sea level. Because the Sea of Galilee is below sea level and is surrounded by mountains, winds sweeping across the land come up and over the mountains, creating downdrafts over the lake. The sea can be calm one minute, and then suddenly, give rise to a severe storm.  Yet, in our Scripture lesson today, the Lordhas sent his disciples, unbeknownst to them, deliberatelyand directly into the path of an oncoming storm.  Why?  Why would a sovereign God allow His own, to experience storms of such violent magnitude? Once there was a little boy who had a boat and he was sailing that boat out onto a small pond.  As he did, the boat got a little too far away from him; it was further away from the shore than the boy was able to reach.  So the boy took some rocks and started throwing the rocks just on the other side of his little boat and as he did he created large waves, and with each rock, the large waves brought the boat just a little bit closer back to him.  Eventually, it was so close that he was able to reach out and once again claim his boat.  The purposes of storms in our lives, is not to push us farther from God, but to allow the tempestuous waves, to push us closer and closer to Him; so that once again we might be within the reach of His providential care.  As someone once said, good sailors are not borne in fair weather.  Friend, what storms are you enduring today?  Do you feel like God has abandoned you to face the violent winds and waves of this trial alone?  Let me remind you that the very storm that you feel is pushing you uncontrollably along, is actually bringing you back into the safety of the arms of the Lord with this new day.