Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Calm In The Storm
What if the calm you need is closer than the storm that scares you? We take a five-minute journey across the Sea of Galilee, where seasoned fishermen met a furious squall and Jesus slept through the spray. When they finally woke him, one command quieted the chaos and one question pierced their fear: Why are you so afraid?
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Mark chapter 4, starting in verse 35. That day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat, and there were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped, and Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this? That even the wind and the waves obey him. It's a story that we've all heard many times. And sometimes those stories become so familiar to us that we sort of skip over them when we're reading through them or we hear them again. But this morning I just want to stop again and look at the simplicity and the power of this message, because that's really is what the Bible is all about. And it's exemplified here in what Jesus did and how Jesus acted in the middle of the storm that they were in. Jesus was tired. He'd been teaching and ministering all day long. So now he went to the stern of the boat, and there was a cushion there, and he's decided to have a nap. The disciples, most of them were fishermen. And in fact, they probably spent the majority of their lives on this sea and knew it well. And yet as they were part way across, all of a sudden this storm came up and it started to overtake them and swamp the boat, and they did absolutely everything they could to try and get themselves out of the problem that they were in. But no matter what they did and what they tried, it wasn't enough. And as a last resort, they went to Jesus and said, Jesus, wake up. Don't you care that we're dying? I'm sure there was more than just Jesus wake up. It was like, how can he sleep through this? We're being tossed around, the waves are coming over, there's water everywhere, the wind is blowing, and we're gonna die here. And he's sound asleep. Jesus, wake up! Don't you care that we're dying? Jesus got up and he looked at them and he turned to the wind and waves and he said, Quiet, be still. The message of this story really is very simple. It's all about God's power and all about our trust in him. This storm was no surprise to Jesus. He was fully aware what was going to happen when they got on the boat. He knew what was going to take place. And yet he was completely calm in the middle of the situation. He was able to rest and relax and actually sleep through it. The disciples in the middle of it all, they did what we usually do. They tried to solve it themselves the best way they could. And so they did everything that they knew how to make it work. They relied on all of their expertise and their experience to try to save their hides. As a very last resort, they called out to Jesus and said, Don't you care that we're dying? When Jesus stood up and calmed the wind and the waves, he turned to them and said, Why do you have so little faith? I'm asking that question to me and to all of us today. In the middle of the storms that we go through, why is it we try to solve the problems ourselves first? And usually what happens is it just gets us more afraid and more frustrated. If the disciples had gone to Jesus first, they would have solved their problem. If we learn to go to Jesus first, he will help to solve our problems. It's a matter where we are putting our trust. Are we putting it on ourselves and our own knowledge and our own expertise? Or are we putting it into the creator of the universe and putting that trust and faith in him to say, okay, I will trust you in the middle of this to get me through and to get me out? My word of encouragement today is go to Jesus first. He already knows the answers. He already has the power to overcome it. He's already there for you and he is with you today. He is with you and he is for you. Let him give you that strength that you need right now. God bless you. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
