Acts 27 | God in the Stormਨਮੂਨਾ

At Sea

There’s a distinct difference between what we fear we’ll face and what we actually come to face. Many times, what we actually face turns out to be far less frightening than our fears. But sometimes, it’s worse.

When Peter found himself sinking in the water, Jesus grabbed his hand immediately.

For Paul, it wouldn’t be so immediate.

For more than fourteen days, Luke tells us of the peril they faced. Hurricane-force winds are sweeping down on them. Caught in the storm and driven out to sea by it. Loss of lifeboats. Passing ropes under a ship pounding into the waves as it’s pounded by the wind—just to hold it together. Taking on water. Throwing over cargo. Throwing over the ship’s tackle! Trying to stay afloat. The sun blotted out. No stars. Lost at sea with no way to find their bearings. No time to eat. Exhaustion. All in the desperate attempt to make it through. Facing a shipwreck. Every moment a new terror. Fear and panic from everyone on board. And about to be dashed on the rocks. Then having to escape the ship to save their lives by jumping into a raging sea. And some couldn’t swim.

Once, Jesus and his disciples were at sea. Not this sea, but at sea nonetheless. Mark tells us a furious storm came up with waves breaking over the boat and the ship about to sink, with Jesus quietly asleep on a cushion in the back as the disciples cried out, “Don’t you care if we drown!?”

Sometimes it feels like God is asleep when we’re at sea. Even the Psalms cry out, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever” (Ps 44:23, NIV).

As Mark tells the story, Jesus gets up. You almost get the sense he got up slowly, awakened from a deep and restful sleep without a care in the world and without any sense of panic or urgency.

Then, as Mark recounts, “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm” (Mark 4:39, NIV).

Read it again.

He got up. He rebuked the wind and said to the waves. “Quiet. Be still.” And the wind died down, and it was completely calm.

Jesus is not asleep.

Like God in the wilderness with Israel outside the Promised Land, so God is at sea when we find ourselves there: lost, flailing, and drowning. It’s at sea where we often see (albeit often in retrospect) God’s most powerful work displayed. It’s there that we can have the greatest and most personal encounters with him.

Jesus is so much bigger than the sea. Stronger. Fiercer. Present.

The sea is no match for Jesus. He even walks upon it.

Revelation ends with John seeing a new heaven and a new earth—when Christ comes again to make all things new. When he comes to set all things right. Where he wipes every tear from our eyes. Where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain. When our current order of things passes away. John writes that when he looked, “there was no longer any sea” (Rev 21:1, NIV).

Until that time, when you find yourself at sea, repeat this word of the Lord over and over again, “Quiet. Be still. And the wind died down, and it was completely calm.” Because Jesus is there, even when the sea is raging.

The salvation and power of God are often in the middle of life’s calamities. They are not a sign of punishment from God or that things are out of God’s hands. God is in the storm. And God will use us in the middle of them to bring his salvation to others.