Day 8 – Issue 12

Be Still Know

Psalm 44:12 NLT

You sold your precious people for a pittance, making nothing on the sale.

Ever felt you’ve been sold out? The initial creeping awareness is bad enough. But then comes the long battle with resentment that easily leads to bitterness. At the same time, waves of feeling stupid sweep in to act as character assassins and gnaw at our self-confidence. Yet, while this is the way we can treat others, or indeed find ourselves treated, this is not God’s way.

However, it can at times feel like it is exactly God’s way.

The disciples, adrift on the Sea of Galilee hours after participating in the wonderful spectacle of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, confront a storm of immense proportions. Surrounded by the storm, they feel that the wind and the waves are too large, while their nautical skills are too small to meet this challenge. They move to despair – the Jesus of the miracle is nowhere to be seen.

Then suddenly they hear a familiar voice, and perceive through torrential rain and blinding spray the figure of Jesus actually approaching them upon the waters. Peter, the impetuous one, asks Jesus to call him out of the boat. Jesus does and Peter somewhat bravely if uncertainly leaves the boat and walks on the water. As reason trumps faith, he begins to sink and Jesus reaches out to rescue him and restores him to the boat.

This is a growth moment, when Peter and the disciples, disciples that include both me and you, are invited to grow beyond our natural understanding and recognise that we participate in a multidimensional world in which the Lord of life, Jesus himself, is in fact the only true constant. All else is movable in God’s loving desire to reveal his gift to the world and the nature of the God-filled life.

QUESTION: When and how have you felt short-changed and ‘sold out’ by God?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, be the centre of my life and help my eyes remain fixed on you.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright C 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc, Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA. All rights reserved.