Devotional: Faith over Fear

“‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.”

- Mark 6:50-51

Read all of Mark 6:45-52

— This is the story where Jesus walks on the sea while His disciples are struggling to row in the wind. When they see Jesus, they think he is a ghost. He reassures them, then stops the wind after climbing into their boat.

Immediately before this scenario, Jesus performed His miracle of feeding over 5,000 people by multiplying only five loaves of bread and two fish.

What I realized this time when reading the stories together was that Jesus was testing the faith of His disciples’ in both scenarios. However, both times, they chose fear over faith. They chose to be fleshly-minded instead of spiritually-minded.

At this point in the gospels’ stories, Jesus’ disciples have already seen Him perform multiple miracles. Were they ready to believe that He was truly the Messiah? Were they ready to have faith that He could do anything? Were they ready to trust that He would take care of them?

Their first test showed their lack of faith when they suggested sending the multitude of people to the village to get food. Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” Their response was, “We don’t have enough money to feed all these people.”

Had they understood who Jesus was (choosing faith over the flesh), they would have said, “Jesus, you can provide!” They didn’t have that childlike faith yet. Ironically, Jesus used a child (mentioned in John’s gospel) who offered the fish and bread that Jesus multiplied.

The second test began when Jesus told His disciples to get in the boat to go across the sea. Jesus stayed behind to pray. Eventually, the disciples started struggling to row with the force of the wind.

He intentionally sent them out to the windy sea alone.

Jesus, being all-knowing, knew this was going to happen. Were they going to call out to Him for help? Were they going to be spiritually-minded yet? Were they going to fix their eyes on Jesus this time?

As they struggled, Jesus eventually started to walk across the sea around 3 o’clock in the morning. The scripture in Mark says, “He would have passed them by,” but the disciples noticed Him, thinking it was a ghost! Jesus was going to pass them, possibly letting them continue to struggle because they had not yet exhibited their faith by calling out to Him.

Once again, the disciples were not thinking about Jesus. They reacted in fear. They had been overwhelmed with fighting the wind at sea and their first reaction to Jesus was that He was a ghost.

He had allowed His disciples to struggle out at sea alone, waiting to see if they would call on Him. All along, He was testing their faith; sadly, they failed the test.

Despite their faithlessness and earthly perspective, Jesus, in His mercy and compassion, calmed their fears and the wind.

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Jesus, being a good teacher, tests us.

James 1:2-4 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Jesus doesn’t test our faith for His sake. He tests it for ours. If our faith isn’t tested, how will we know it’s alive? How will we grow?

Even when we fail however, God will always be glorified. We might be faithless, but He will be faithful. He was faithful to feed the 5,000 men. He was faithful to calm the storm.

Take a moment: Is there an area in your life where God has called you to take a step of faith?

• The way you can know if God is asking you to take a step of faith is when it is something that you don’t want to do or if it is something that seems otherwise impossible to do on your own.

  You might be afraid that if you take that step, you will fail, or people will judge you.

• Maybe you have been resisting His still small voice. Maybe you don’t even know if God is asking you to take a step of faith because you are too focused on the earthly realm.

• Ask God if you have been focusing more on the earthly realm or the spiritual realm. Ask Him to open up an opportunity for you to practice exercising your faith. Lastly, ask Him to give you the courage to choose faith over fear.

Our goal is to please Him by obeying His voice. Choosing to trust Him instead of being afraid is what it means to live by faith.

-Alina