Honestly, sometimes when those storms of life hit us, it feels like God has forsaken us. There is an intrinsic teaching value in this bible lesson, telling us that God does not forsake us. After all, Jesus, the son of God, was in the boat with the disciples.

So, maybe God hasn’t forsaken us, but what this story expresses is that sometimes it feels like God isn’t doing anything. God isn’t answering our prayers in the hour of our greatest needs.

So, Jesus was asleep while the disciples were frantically trying to stay afloat, trying to steer the boat clear of the roaring waves. How was it even possible for Jesus to sleep through such a storm? Was he that tired? Did he really not know what was going on? Or did he pretend to sleep to test his disciples’ faith?

I’m saying this because Jesus, after calming the storm, said this to the disciples: “Where is your faith?”

I think, other questions are implicit in this teaching moment, such as: What were you thinking? That the son of God would drown? That I would allow a storm, a few waves, and a little wind, to destroy us?

Do you see what’s happening here? Suddenly our question to God: “why don’t you answer our prayers?” is turned right back at us: “where is your faith?” Turns out that Jesus expects us to keep our faith during those hard times.

Personally, my biggest question is not how God can expect us to have faith in those “God-forsaken” moments, but rather: “what does such faith look like? What did Jesus expect the disciples to do differently?

Obviously, the disciples had to do what they did to try to steer the boat away from the big waves, they had to bail water out of the boat. Surely, Jesus did not expect them to ignore the danger and do nothing.

So was it that Jesus did not want them to worry? Actually, I think there is a lot of confusion about worrying.

In my understanding, there are different kind of worries. Some are bad, and others are acceptable, understandable, and might actually serve a purpose.

When Jesus talks in Matthew 6 about not worrying, please pay attention to what he is talking about:

Jesus was talking about the everyday worries of life, what you wear, eat, how you appear to others. Note that he wasn’t talking about an emergency, or a shortage or a famine.

During times of crisis and hardship, we have reason to worry. But here Jesus is talking about everyday things, worrying about little stuff. Did anybody by worrying about those everyday things ever add so much as an hour to their life? Nope. So, that kind of worrying is futile!

But then, there is the other kind of worrying which seems to be acceptable. We worry about our safety, about our children, about finances when things get tough. These kind of worries often lead to solutions. We are to worry for our future and about others.

However, it seems that God does expect us to show faith even when the storms of life become life threatening. Note that Jesus asked: “where is your faith? “and not “why did you worry?” Losing faith is not an option in God’s book. And the disciples showed little, if any faith [continue]