Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 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. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Matthew 8:23-27
Yesterday, we realized together that we’re never alone in our storms. Truly, Presence Matters Most. Today I want to zone in on one word: Rest. This is yet another example of what Jesus taught on the mountain so that we could put faith into practice. Do you remember that back on the mountain, Jesus began to talk about the cure for anxiety (Matthew 6:25–34)? He brings our attention to the birds and how they have homes in barns and are fed by the heavenly Father. And he turns our hearts to pursue and seek the kingdom, and while we do that, we’re to not worry about tomorrow, and he finishes this with this phrase: “Each day has enough trouble of its own. v.34 “
Just like the command to go and make disciples, we find that rest is also a command. God calls us to rest, not just physically but also spiritually (Exodus 20:8–11). Think of all the implications in the Bible we’re called to rest from…
- God desires you to experience rest from fear—1 John 4:18.
- God desires you to experience rest from all worry, to be free and not to worry about anything—Matthew 6.
- God desires you to experience rest from all anxiety about anything—Philippians 4:6-7.
- God desires you to experience rest from sin—Romans 6:18.
- God desires you to experience rest from efforts to save yourself from sin—that’s throughout the whole book of Galatians.
I go back to Matthew 6, where Jesus says, “Each day has enough trouble of its own. v. 34,” and we’re also reminded of John 16:33, where Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” This world has its troubles. This word has its hardships. We live in a world that’s like trying to walk through an uneven thicket filled with thorns and thistles. But yet, we’re created to rest from the hardships and emptiness of this world. He created us to turn away from the endless traps of money, possessions, positions, and pleasures in this world, thinking, “This will satisfy me or that will do it,” then coming up empty. If there is one thing the Rolling Stones got right, it was by saying, “I can’t get no Satisfaction.” It’s true; you’ll never find rest and satisfaction in this thorny world by pursuing the well the world has created for us to drink from. God tells his people in Jeremiah 2:13, “You don’t have to keep drinking water from broken cisterns that don’t hold water when I will completely satisfy your soul.”
Its a scripture that reminds us, we have an issue from drinking from the wrong wells. Jesus said to the Samriatian woman, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of waterwelling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Stop drinking from wells that do not satisfy. You ca’tn control everything around you. But here’s some good news, you don’t have to control everything. There is rest available to you and to me… all we need to do is return to the Lord, and its there in His presence we find rest.
Psalms 116:7 says, “Return, O my soul, to your rest.”
Prayer
Jesus, I rest my life in Your power to bring peace to the furious waves.