The Peace of God

Remember in Matthew 8, when Jesus and the disciples were in a boat and storm suddenly came up around them? They feared for their lives, the waves were washing over them, but Jesus didn't act immediately. Yet, Jesus had absolute control of the situation. All He had to do was speak; the raging storm around them stopped immediately. The disciples were awestruck; even a storm would obey His voice! I was reading over this account and I realized something.... Jesus could have prevented the storm from occurring at all. Or He could have told the disciples it was a bad time to go out in the boat! He could have saved them from even experiencing fear and anxiety of the situation!! So, why did He allow this to happen? He had something important to teach them, something they may have never learned without the storm. In the midst of their fear and anxiety, they learned about their own helplessness and their dependency on Jesus. And most of all, they learned about HIS sufficiency and HIS power!

I'm sure the disciples thought they might all die and wanted the whole frightening situation to end the second it began. But, if they had avoided this storm, they would've missed this amazing demonstration of Jesus' power over the wind and sea! It was proof of Jesus' divine nature. You know what? God wants to show us His power through our trials, too! And He has!

Praise Him for the storm!! He has infused us with courage, bolstered our faith and has taught us about His love, power and provision.

Please praise Him along with me for the following things:

• Our flour and oil still have not become empty!
• He continues to show us ways to stretch our food and money every day and multiplies our "loaves and fishes"
• He takes care of every true need we have! Last week, he provided a gift that took care of our groceries.
• Our kids are in a Madrigal Dinner and the tickets are expensive so we didn't plan to go... but we were gifted tickets to the show.
• We've had strep throat going around this week and we are especially thankful we still have health insurance.
• Mark had a good meeting with a recruiter this week. Continue to pray for God's direction!