A Colander of Faith

“Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”” - Matthew 8:23-27

Lord, help us to look to You today.  Sometimes in the middle of a storm at sea we become preoccupied with merely surviving. We find ourselves trying to bail out water using a colander of faith and we lose sight of You.  We panic, and just like the disciples in the boat with Jesus, we are overtaken by fear and begin to question if You truly care about what we are going through.  Hard circumstances bring our true beliefs to the surface.  When a struggle is light, it is relatively easy to muster up the faith-filled words to say.  However, when push comes to shove and the heat is on, our true beliefs about who You are come to the surface.  Father, there is a disparity between what we say we believe and our responses to the difficulties we encounter.  

Every day we face struggles of varying intensities.  Some are tiny annoyances, while others are debilitatingly painful, frightening and life altering.  The calm moments in a sea of glass feel like mere seconds compared to lengthy days of bailing water, panic, sweat and wondering where You are.  It’s the traumas of life that cause schisms in the integrity of who we are.  The tiny hairline cracks between what we believe and what we say can start off as small, but when false beliefs are allowed to persist - when we don’t counter them with truth - they widen, and the disparity between our words and true beliefs become apparent.  Lord, we need Your help to restore our integrity - the integrity that exists when our words, beliefs and actions are all integrated as one.  

Two thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit inspired men of God to pen these stories in scripture to remind us that we are not alone in our brokenness.  They also remind us who You are and the authority that You hold (2 Peter 1:21).  The wind and the seas, two things we have no control over, are completely in submission to Your authority.  You allow storms, not to frighten us into submission, but to remind us that You are in the boat with us.  You use storms in our lives as tools, not to disable us with fear, but to disable the fear within us.  

Father, I lift the dear one reading this.  Be with them in the storm.  Remind them to fix their eyes on You so they can remain at peace.  Help them to not be distracted by the waves around them that they then succumb to fear, lest fear open a door that provides a way for the storm around them to become a storm within them.  Narrow the divides between their words and beliefs.  Holy Spirit come and bind these pieces of their life together restoring wholeness and integrity and giving meaning and beauty to their brokenness.  Fill the holes in their faith with the truth of Your Word, so their faith will hold water.  Help them to win their battle with fear, Father.  I pray that they will remain at peace, knowing that You are with them in the boat.  And we thank You for the hope found in Your Word that reminds us that even when we are broken, even when our faith has holes, like Your disciples, we can still be used to accomplish great things.  In Jesus Name ❤️

Dear friend, is there a battle between what you declare with your mouth and what you truly, deep down inside, believe is truth?  Just like in an argument between two people, there are the opinions of each person about what transpired, and then there is the actual truth that is untainted by the past, our prejudices, wounds and fears.  The way to re-integrate, is to fill yourself with the truth of the Word of God that renews our minds (Rom 12:2), coupled with inviting the work of the Holy Spirit. Why not fill up on the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to bind up your brokenness? 💡


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