"If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." – 1 John 1:7
If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to go listen to the latest Lightwalk podcast episode to learn more about missions and to get information on more resources for a deeper understanding of missions. You can listen to Episode 6 – Missionaries and Martyrdom by clicking this link.
Over the past few months, I have really been focusing on missions in my quiet time. I started 2023 by studying through the book of Acts. It was a transformative time for me as I learned so much more about the early Church and what it meant for Peter and Paul to be missionaries to the local people and to the nations around them. I realized what a great task they had in front of them.
Today, our calling is the same: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation,” (Mark 16:15). This is the epitome of what it means to be a missionary – to introduce another group of people to salvation in Christ and spread His Gospel.
Believe it or not, a large percentage of the world’s population has never heard the name of Jesus and that percentage is steadily growing from year to year. That is because only about 10% of Christians are telling others the good news of Jesus each year. A staggering 90% of believers simply do not practice the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20:
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Have we forgotten that this is the same command Jesus gave us? As a whole, the Church in America has to step up – myself included. Salvation is still available for ALL people everywhere. We must be faithful with the Gospel message. We should be obedient and not cower at the calling the Lord has placed on our life. No doubt, speaking the Gospel to people who are hard-hearted toward Jesus can be extremely intimidating but we should fear the Lord, not men (Hebrews 13:6).
So, what encouragement can we find in Scripture to go on mission and tell the world about the message of salvation found in Jesus Christ?
“Missions” in Scripture
You won’t find the term “missions” in the Bible, but the concept of missions is seen throughout the entirety of Scripture. The terms “evangelist” (Ephesians 4:11) and “witness” (Acts 1:8) are just a couple of the words used that are the closest in meaning to the subject of missions as we know it today. There are also many passages that encourage us to share the Gospel with the people around us and with people around the world.
Romans 10:14-17 gives us some questions to consider regarding Gospel proclamation:
“But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!”
Our hope should be that the Lord uses our witness of His message to spread the Gospel through His Spirit to those all around the world as Paul says, “ it is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in truth,” (Colossians 1:6).
If we are not proclaiming the story of Jesus to those around us, how will the world hear about the greatest Story ever told? And how will this Story continue to bear fruit and grow unless we speak the truth in love to those around us, (Ephesians 4:15)? We’ve been given a task to not only grow in our personal relationship with Jesus through praying and reading the Bible and attending Church, but to also tell others about His love for us in hopes that He would bring those people into relationship with Him through the salvation that He willingly provides for all people. This is where the Church comes in: to equip and send out individuals to teach the Gospel to people in foreign lands with no direct access to Christian churches, the Word of God, and to believers who are allowed to boldly proclaim salvation through Jesus.
The Churchs’ Role in Missions
Missionary activity should be of primary importance in the Church because without the obedience of missionaries in the world, there would be no believers. Christianity and the message of Christ would have died out with the disciples before 100 AD.
The mission of the Church should be to send missionaries to all parts of the world until everyone has had the opportunity to hear the message of Jesus and accept Him as Lord. While the hardest part is getting started, it is important to realize that the people in all communities around the world were also created by God in His image for a divine purpose. Once one person in a group starts believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Spirit spreads through a community like a wildfire.
Practically speaking, the mission-minded Church should have a goal of translating Scripture into the language of these frontier people groups – whether it is written in their language or they have audio recordings of Scripture in their language. That way, the people will be able to hear and understand the Gospel so that heart transformation can occur. It is also important for language teachers to be available in each country so that children can understand the Scriptures in their language.
Now, it is true that not every person in the Church can or should become an international missionary. So how are we supposed to respond to the call to become missionaries when we know that we are not called to go into the other parts of the world? We should be eager to pray, support, and come alongside missionaries when possible.
Believers have an obligation to be ambassadors of Christ – to make His name and His power known to everyone in the world.
“I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. So I am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” – Romans 1:14-16
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God,’” – 2 Corinthians 5:20
As theologian C.H. Spurgeon says, “if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go unwarned and unprayed for.” This is the mindset we should take when considering missions and evangelism to an unreached nation. May all people in every nation be made aware of the Gospel message.
Psalm 96
Sing a new song to the Lord;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to Yahweh, praise His name;
proclaim His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonderful works among all peoples.
For the Lord is great and is highly praised;
He is feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the people are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before Him;
strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name;
bring an offering and enter His courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness;
tremble before Him, all the earth.
Say among the nations: “The Lord reigns.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
He judges the peoples fairly.”
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and all that fills it resound.
Let the fields and everything in them exult.
Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy
After the first two posts of this series, it may seem like the final act of following Jesus is the most simple and will require less frustration on our part. Denying ourselves and taking up our crosses, for the American mind, seems impossible. You want me to say no to my flesh and look to Someone else as my greatest fulfillment? No thanks! I want the money and the luxury and the security of this life. But just retracing Jesus’ footsteps seems simple enough.
Here’s the reality: following Jesus is nothing like following your favorite celebrity on social media. It’s not seeing the life of Christ from afar and “liking” what He has done. It isn’t commenting on His work and being “so proud of You xoxo”. Honestly, obedience to the call of following Jesus can ONLY be done when we have first denied ourselves, taken up our cross, and committed to mimicking the life of Jesus in our lost and dying world.
The act of following Jesus is an essential part of being a Christian. It is the foundation which we base our entire lives upon. It is what sets us apart from the unbelievers of the world as we become imitators of Christ. In order to imitate Him well, we have to follow Him closely and constantly, having given up the comfort and security of our worldly possessions and relying fully on Jesus to sustain us. We look to Him as our example in this life to guide us to eternity in the presence of God the Father in the next life.
It is important to notice that Jesus calls us to follow Him, not just be fans of Him. We are not meant to sit on the outside as spectators of Jesus’ life but we are to partake in life with Him. We are expected to follow Him and live like Him, not just sit by and watch Him work in the pages of Scripture. We are to go where Jesus went, befriend people He befriended, and do the things He did.
Discipleship
Many of us have heard the term “discipleship” floating around the church for some time. Discipleship is loosely defined as “following someone as diligent students who respect and revere the one they are following”. When we willingly follow someone, we are a disciple of that person.
We need to be careful to determine who we are allowing to disciple us. We should be disciples of Jesus first and foremost. Jesus says “follow ME”, not “follow those who follow Me”. Over following anyone else in this world, we should follow Jesus. Not our parents, not our grandparents, not even our pastors or mentors. They are all broken humans who are unable to give us the abundant life that Jesus can provide. Jesus should be first in our lives, over anyone or anything else!
What it Means to be a Disciple of Jesus
But how do we follow Jesus and act as His true disciples? What does the day to day life of following Him look like? How is it different from our life before we were saved by Jesus?
Below are five practical steps to better understand who Jesus is and become diligent followers of His. After all, we wouldn’t follow someone we barely even know. Therefore, it is extremely important to know Jesus and who He truly is.
Here are 5 steps to knowing who Jesus is and how to become a true disciple and follower:
First of all, it is important to talk to Jesus and LISTEN to what He says, both through His Word and through prayer
We have to ACCEPT what He says as the ultimate truth in our lives
Another thing we must do is OBEY Jesus by taking action
Give Jesus room in your life. Let Him be PRESENT in your everyday life, don’t just push Him away.
Lastly, it is important to be willing to LEAVE EVERYTHING BEHIND for the sake of following Him.
When we accept the call to follow after Jesus, we should not only be obedient to do these five things but we should EAGERLY accept these steps as followers of Jesus.
Other Notes/Final Exhortations
Being a disciple of Jesus is to be a true worshiper of Him exclusively as we see Jesus tell the woman at the well –
“But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
– John 4:23-24
We also must be willing to serve others in the name of Jesus. We see the example Jesus gives us after He Himself washed the feet of His disciples –
“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you.”
– John 13:14-15
As disciples and followers of Jesus, we should want the people around us to follow Him. We should tell the story of His life, death, and saving resurrection as witnesses to those around us just as He did throughout His ministry here on earth –
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus tells His disciples that the second prerequisite for following Him – after denying themselves – is to take up their cross. In the context of Matthew 16:24, the cross did not signify faith in Jesus since He had not yet been crucified. So the disciples would not have associated the cross with the resurrection or eternal life as believers do today.
They would, however, consider the cross a symbol of death by crucifixion. During those times in ancient Rome, crucifixion on a cross was a common, cruel punishment for offenders convicted of the worst crimes. Jesus’ followers would have considered a cross-bearer a dead man walking toward his own crucifixion. So why would Jesus tell them to take up their cross if it would seem to the outside world that they were criminals by doing so?
Of course, Jesus didn’t mean that His disciples would have to take up a cross in the literal sense. To the outside world, it may look like they are giving up their lives, but Jesus was not calling them to death as felons but to eternal life in Him. They were not being forced to take up their crosses as convicted offenders but were rather invited to willingly bear their cross for the sake of Christ just as He would soon do for the sake of the world (John 19:17).
They were to put to death any plans that they had made for themselves and give their lives completely over to Him – crucifying their worldly sins and idols and revealing their faithfulness to Him alone. A call to bear one’s cross as part of following Jesus was a call to be as submitted to Christ as the condemned criminal was to his death, no matter what this act looked like to the rest of the world.
For believers today, we are called to the same thing: to disregard the world’s perception of us as Christians and obey Jesus’ command to take up our cross. Here, it is important to consider that one cannot effectively bear their cross without first denying oneself – the two go hand-in-hand. When we deny ourselves, we claim that our earthly life as we know it is futile, and we are no longer fixated on controlling it. Beyond that, when we take up our cross, we reveal that we are completely and utterly submitted to a life of faithfulness to the One who saves. Nothing in the world – not even our own lives – should matter to us more than obedience to Jesus.
There are many examples throughout the New Testament of what it looks like to bear your cross. The book of James is one of the more practical books about living a cross-bearing life. The following are just a few examples of how Christians can show the world that they are submitting to a godly lifestyle instead of following the world’s ways:
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger when someone calls out sin in your life (James 1:19,20)
Be doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22)
Control your tongue (James 1:26, 3:8)
Keep yourself unstained by the world (James 1:27b)
Reveal the faith you have in Jesus Christ by your works (James 2:26)
Do not harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart (James 3:14-16)
Submit to God and resist the Devil (James 4:7-10)
Be patient (James 5:8)
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16)
Turn a sinner from the error of his way (James 5:19-20)
Many people assume that the life of a Christian should be extremely easy and comfortable. Still, as we have seen in our study of Matthew 16:24 so far, the life of a true believer is one of the most difficult to live. Just as the rest of the world around us is tempted to give in to sin on a moment-by-moment basis, we are too. But we should remember the calling of Jesus to deny ourselves and take up our cross in those instances. It shouldn’t be so simple for the Christian to give in to the sin that lures us every second of every day. We should fight against the sins of our flesh.
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
— Galatians 5:24 (ESV)
This is the cross we are called to bear: To deny the world of its hold on us and crucify our flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24). It is not a simple or easy task; it is a burden. That cross weighs us down as we walk toward Calvary following our Savior Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God, that we are not relying on our own strength to bear this cross. We are given the strength of Christ (Philippians 4:13).
If bearing the cross is so hard and painful and makes us look foolish to the outside world, why should we willingly submit to bearing it? Because the cross precedes the crown. Just as Jesus had to bear His cross to take His crown, we are called to the same. The apostle Paul tells us that the “sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). None of the persecution we face in life will be remembered when we enter the presence of God the Father and God the Son in glory.
Taking up your cross is a high but matchless calling. Nothing in this world is worth passing up eternal life. Christ is claiming authority when He calls for our self-denial and cross-bearing. When we do these two things, we give allegiance to Him instead of ourselves, setting us up for an easier path of following Him toward eternal life.
Today’s society is riddled with mottos of “do what you want”, “you only live once”, and “you can be whatever you want to be”. People often quote these and similar sayings to themselves to get over whatever obstacles they may be facing in life. While these quotes do not seem particularly harmful, they can lead the mind of a believer astray from what the Lord Jesus has called us to.
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus calls His followers to “deny” themselves. Much different from what society teaches us, Jesus calls us to disown and oppose ourselves – to say “no” to our meager human concerns and consider only the concerns of God.
Like most of what the Lord calls us to, this practice of self-denial does not come naturally to us. Our flesh begs us to give in to the thoughts and inevitable actions of the “do what you want” philosophy, although we know we are called to fight against the sins of our flesh. The apostle Paul speaks to this in his letter to the Romans: “For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do,” (Romans 7:19). It is human inclination to sin – to “not practice what [we] want to do, but [we] do what [we] hate,” (Romans 7:15b).
When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves in Matthew 16:24, He is calling us to reject any self-centered thinking so that we may devote ourselves exclusively to following Jesus. Effective self-denial can be described as the act of being WILLING to mentally give up all that we THINK we own and focus only on the work of His Kingdom. Jesus wants us to die to ourselves by putting aside self-righteousness, self-indulgence, and everything that “belongs” to us – our desires, our ambitions, our thoughts, our dreams, and our possessions.
The Dictionary of Biblical Themes defines “self-denial” as this: “the willingness to deny oneself possessions or status, in order to grow in holiness and commitment to God.” We must take the same mindset of Paul when he says in Philippians 3:7-8, “but everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ…” All things that we own, all of our awards, all of our accolades should be considered filth in light of gaining Jesus Christ. We should desire a relationship with Jesus more than we desire anything else in this world.
So how can we practically live out Jesus’ calling to deny ourselves – to forget all that we own, all that we want? First of all, it is important to know that this practice of self-denial is not a one-time thing. We must make the conscious decision to deny ourselves every moment of every day. Every thought you think or action you take should provoke the question: “does this glorify God?” The center of our world should not include ourselves but only Jesus.
We can live this out in the following ways:
Fasting. Whether fasting from food or from some other worldly activity, setting our minds on Jesus as our only provider relinquishes any control we thought we had over our own lives and gives that control over to Him
Prayer. Communication with the Father with Jesus as our mediator is one of the best ways to deny our flesh from taking over our minds and begging us to sin
Living modestly (as opposed to indulging in excessive luxury). Our flesh lives in a constant state of “instant gratification”. We want what we want when we want it. When we live modestly, we live within our means and do not give in to the world’s standards of living a lavish lifestyle.
Love and esteem brothers and sisters in Christ. Putting others before ourselves will always humble us and give us something more to live for besides boasting about our own work and ability.
Serving in the body of Christ – the Church. Building up the Kingdom of God here on earth is another way to shut our own desires down and live only for the concerns of God.
“When you are willing to sacrifice time, energy, rights, position, reputation, privileges, comforts, and even your very life for the sake of Christ, you exemplify what it means to deny yourself,” (GotQuestions.org).
Galatians 5:24: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
I have spent the past week weeding through countless emails about the beginning of the New Year.
“New Year, new gear” – Reebok
“Here’s to a Sustainable Year” – Brumate
“Your 2023 Fuel Price Outlook” – GasBuddy
And my personal favorite:
“Get your relationship goals in 2023” – eHarmony
Don’t we all get those? Retailers, bloggers, and app developers all send emails about how you should start the new year, what you should buy, how many books you should read, and where you should travel this year.
Now, I’ve posted about my resolutions already for the year (2023 New Years’ Resolution – Luke 11:34-36) but I must admit that about a week into each new year, I begin thinking – “What If?”
What if this is the year _____ happens?
What if this is the year Georgia wins the national championship or Atlanta wins the Super Bowl?
What is this is the year I meet my future husband or even get married?
What if this is the year Grand Dominion Ranch takes off and I begin a new career?
What are some of your “what ifs” each time a new year starts? Comment below to share!
As I get older and grow deeper in my relationship with the Lord, I realize how desperate these “what ifs” seem. Like I could ever know what the Lord has planned for my life. It is comical that I think I can play God. I can’t even control the next twelve seconds of my life, much less the next twelve months!
We must learn to relinquish the control that we THINK we have over to God the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. He knows exactly what He is doing and how to deal with each and every “what if” we ask. Even the ones that are kind of scary:
What if this is the year we have to sell our property and move closer to town?
What if this is the year someone I know and love gets diagnosed with some incurable disease?
What if this is the year my house falls apart?
We have a lot to worry about, don’t we? And sometimes it’s hard not to worry.
But we also have a lot to be hopeful for. Not just material wealth but spiritual as well. As believers, we have a living Hope that cannot be taken away.
" Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off."
- Proverbs 23:18
The apostle Peter says,
“Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
1 Peter 1:3-4 (HCSB)
If the same apostle who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed in Luke 22:54-62 can repent and believe in a living hope with an imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading inheritance – why can’t we? Our hope is not dead but living. Our heavenly inheritance cannot be taken away from us; it is promised for eternity. God is in control of ALL things, including the year 2023. No matter how this year has started out for you, rest in the fact that the same God that was in control of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt, the same God that was in control during the destruction of His temple, the same God that was in control when the Savior of the world resurrected from the dead, is still in control now.
“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12
The Importance of the Bible
Have you ever sat down at your desk, opened up your Bible, and really thought about how amazing it is that we have the words from an all-knowing God written in a language that we understand? One of the greatest miracles God has ever performed was when He took His infinite vocabulary and pieced together words that could be comprehended by our very limited human minds.
I believe the daily reading, studying, and memorization of the Bible is of utmost importance in the life of a true Christian. By reading the Bible, we know that God is good, just, merciful, and loving. It tells us of God’s amazing grace and of His plan for our salvation. The Bible is our source of peace in a world that is passing away.
The Word of God is also “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12), breathing life into the souls of those who are faithful to read and study it. It’s no wonder that the longest chapter of the Bible (Psalm 119) is about having a deep desire for God’s Word. The psalmist spends 176 verses discussing all the ways that the Bible can be useful to believers if they simply spend time reading and studying it.
Misplaced Priorities
However, we often tend to forget how powerful the Bible is and how desperately we need it to sustain us during our everyday life. The Bible is the only book of its kind, yet we treat it as though it’s just another piece of paper with words on it. But why do we treat it that way?
Unfortunately, as much as people like to blame lack of time or lack of understanding for their neglect of reading the Bible, I believe it has more to do with misplaced priorities than anything else. We have started to prioritize sleeping in, making sure the house is clean, catching up on our favorite TV show, and having the perfect makeup routine over spending time reading the Bible. None of these things in and of themselves are sinfully bad but NONE of them should take priority over our personal relationship with Jesus. And until we believe that to be true, reading the Bible will not be at the top of our “to-do” list each day.
Getting Started
When I first started studying the Bible, I spent most of my study time feeling tired (because I was waking up earlier than I was used to) and confused (because I had no idea what was going on in what I was reading). But I remained faithful and kept reading, asking God to give me the clarity to understand and energy to stay awake. And through my remaining faithful, God revealed His faithfulness to me by giving me the clarity and energy I had asked for.
If you are stuck in a spot where you really want to begin studying the Bible but are having a hard time getting started, I want to offer a few tips that I have learned in my years of studying:
GET A VERSION OF THE BIBLE THAT YOU CAN READ EASILY (BUT MAKE SURE IT IS NOT A PARAPHRASE VERSION)
In order to start studying the Bible, you need … well… a Bible. More than likely, someone in your family or in your church has gifted you with one at some point in your life. But if you are a 28-year-old woman and the only Bible you have is a KJV Teen Study Bible that has been collecting dust since you were in middle school, it may be time to go Bible shopping.
A few important things to consider when shopping for a Bible are: (1) what type of Bible you want/need (devotional Bible, reference Bible, study Bible, hardcover, softcover, etc.) (2) the readability of the translation that you are wanting to purchase (how well you can understand it), and (3) the accuracy of the translation when compared to the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts. (See chart below):
When picking out a Bible, I would suggest that you stay more toward the left side of the “Bible Translation Continuum”. However, it is important to consider that the readability of the translation may be compromised in order to make the translation more literal to the original manuscripts.
My personal go-to is the Christian Standard Bible (CSB; formerly Holman Christian Standard Bible – HCSB) but I also enjoy using the English Standard Version (ESV) every now and then. As you can see, the ESV is a more formal translation but the CSB is a more readable translation. The main reason that I have used the CSB more is that it was the only Bible translation I had when I wanted to really start studying the Bible.
Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need the fanciest-looking Bible out there. Any Bible that you can read and understand is perfect. You can get a good Bible on Amazon for $20-$30 or you could go to your local Christian store and find one for around the same price.
2. GET A NOTEBOOK OR JOURNAL AND YOUR FAVORITE PENS (HIGHLIGHTERS HELP TOO)
Now, you don’t have to use a specific type of notebook to take notes in. I use the Moleskine Cahier journals because the paper quality is on point. But if you don’t care about paper quality as much as I do, you could use a regular school composition notebook which usually sells for less than $1 at most stores. I am also VERY picky about my pens but if you can write with regular stick pens, use those. God doesn’t need you to break your bank in order to have quality time with Him.
These are the notebooks/pens that I use while I study the Bible:
Every morning, the first thing I do is plan out my day. I grab my planner and my Frixion pens and write out everything I have to do, being sure to include a section for my quiet time. This really helps me keep my priorities straight. If I didn’t take time to plan my day, 4 times out of 5 I would skip spending time with the Lord so that I could start on something else that felt more important to me.
I don’t have to spend two hours in the morning trying to understand every concept in the Bible. Most days, I just set aside 30 to 45 minutes to pray, read the next section of what I’m studying (I’ll talk more about that later), and take notes on that section.
“But I don’t have time throughout my day to study my Bible…” I know. I know. I hear ya.
Here’s the best advice I have for people who “don’t have enough time” to read the Bible: wake up 30 minutes earlier. As someone who likes to sleep in, I had to train myself to get out of bed as soon as my alarm went off and sit at my desk so that I wouldn’t be tempted to roll over and fall back asleep. Once I’m at my desk, I plan my day and read my Bible. That 30-45 minutes I spend meditating on God’s Word changes my mood for the entire day. I’m a completely different person when I wake up early and give the Lord the very first minutes of my day.
However, if you are a night person who can stay awake for an extra 30 minutes before going to bed, use that time to study instead. It doesn’t matter what part of your day you decide to study, it just matters that you set aside time to read God’s Word.
I have used the Day Designer to plan my days for the past few months and I absolutely love it:
Before I even open up my Bible to start reading, I spend a few minutes in prayer. I pray for anything that my friends or family have asked me to pray for and then I ask the Lord to bless the time I spend in His Word. This gets my heart and mind ready to receive whatever He has for me as I study. If you are a believer, asking the Holy Spirit to give you discernment and guidance as you read can be the biggest difference in whether or not you understand the passage(s).
Most of the time when I pray, I just sit at my desk and silently tell the Lord what’s on my heart. Sometimes I will feel the need to write prayers down so I will grab my prayer journal and a pen, and I will write out the words I want to say. I know people who write every prayer down and I know people who have never written a prayer down. It all just depends on your personal preference.
5. HAVE A PLAN
Don’t worry, I’m not going to copy and paste point #3 from above here. This planning is more about knowing what you are going to study.
It is important to know what you are going to study BEFORE you start reading. It is a common but dangerous practice to just flip to a page in the Bible, read a little section, and go on about your day. If we do that, we miss the major context of the verses we read and confuse ourselves even more.
The books I typically recommend to people who have never tried to study the Bible before are James, Romans, or the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Once you understand more of who Jesus is and what it means to be a true follower of Him, you can move deeper into the New Testament or get into the Old Testament to understand more of what the world before Jesus was like.
The best advice I can give you is to choose a book of the Bible to start studying and read it from beginning to end. Each day, break the book down into small passages so that you aren’t overwhelmed by the amount you have to read. For instance, if you decide to start studying James, just stick to verses 1-11 of the first chapter so that you can dig deeper into those verses to get a better understanding of them. Then the next day, study through verses 12-18 and so on and so forth. Don’t worry if you get less than 10 verses done each day. The important thing is that you start to grasp the meaning of the text and understand why it is important for you as a Christian to know it.
6. BE INTENTIONAL
There will be times when you are studying, and you still don’t understand what the Lord is trying to teach you. Don’t give up! Those are the moments when He is cultivating your heart to really understand what is happening in that passage. There have been many moments where I have read a passage and thought “that makes no sense” and then I’ll reread it the next morning and the Lord has given me a greater understanding of it. In the Lord’s perfect timing, He will give us wisdom.
There are going to be times where you don’t really feel the Holy Spirit moving in you, but you have to remain faithful to read God’s Word; you are learning more than you may give yourself credit for.
7. GET SOME RESOURCES
If you ever get to a point where you say to yourself “Okay, I’ve read through this passage a few times and I want to know what other pastors/Bible teachers/theologians think about it…”, you should look into getting some type of resource to help you understand the passage even better. There are a few different types of resources out there that can be very beneficial for someone who is just starting to study the Bible. However, there are some false teachings in the world so you should ask your pastor or other solid Christians for their recommendations when it comes to each of the following:
Commentaries
One such resource is called a commentary. Essentially, commentaries are the Bible study notes of theologians, pastors, and other leaders in the church who have spent a lot of time reading and studying certain books of the Bible. Since commentaries are written by flawed humans, it is important not to use commentaries as a stand-alone substitution for the Bible itself. It is also important to only use commentaries from trusted Bible scholars who have studied the Bible for years and years.
The most effective way for me to use a commentary in conjunction with studying my Bible is to read the passage of Scripture in my Bible first and while I read, write down any questions that I may have or different points that really stand out to me. After reading through the passage in the Bible (sometimes 2 or 3 times), I open up the commentary I’m using to the respective section that I read through in the Bible and read what the commentary author had to say about the questions I had and the points I wrote down. Once I’m done reading through the commentary and taking notes on it, I go back through the passage in the Bible one more time to make sure that I understand the flow of it and, if necessary, I will make a note in the margins of my Bible of the most important point from that passage.
Right now, I am studying through Hebrews and have used the commentary linked below to help me understand different concepts in the passages throughout the book:
Bible dictionaries are pretty self-explanatory. They are dictionaries that focus on words in the Bible. Knowing the true meanings of words in the Bible helps a great deal when trying to understand different passages in the Bible.
You don’t have to have a physical copy of a Bible dictionary to find the definition of a word in the Bible but for those of you who enjoy having a physical copy, I have linked one that I’ve seen pastors use during their sermon prep. For others of you who want the free online option, I have linked the website that I use to look up words:
Concordances are another great tool to use when studying the Bible, especially if you want to know more about a specific topic. A concordance is a list of words found in the Bible and shows where each word is found in each book of the Bible. In addition to a dictionary, a concordance can help you better understand the definition and context of a word.
Like a Bible dictionary, there are a few concordances found online for free but I have also linked one of the most popular options of a physical copy of a concordance below. (Some Bibles also include a short concordance in the back):
As someone who loves the Bible and tries to get as much out of it as I can, I have started listening to sermons on my Podcast app and online. This way I can just search the passage of Scripture that I read that day, find a sermon by a pastor that I know and trust, and listen to the sermon as I drive. This way, I get an even deeper understanding of the passage of Scripture and shouldn’t lack any knowledge of its importance.
(I will do a post on different podcasts I recommend soon!)
I recommend looking up sermons on the Podcast app on iPhone or iPad or using Sermon Audio to find sermons/pastors that have been recommended to you by your Christian friends. Sermon Audio has different filters you can use to find the perfect sermon for the part of the Bible you are studying but, again, don’t let words of men take the place of the Word of God. The Bible is the ultimate authority.
There are a lot of different ways you can take notes. Just Google Search “best note-taking method” and many options will pop up.
My favorite way to take notes is to write them out as if I am going to teach the passage that I’m reading to a small group of teenage girls. Now, I take notes this way because it isn’t unrealistic that I would eventually teach that passage to a group of teen girls. If I go ahead and set my notes up in a way that helps me flow through the passage while adding comments here and there, I will be more prepared to teach when given the opportunity. This also helps me make sure that the notes I take are accurate according to the Scriptures. I need to have a good, solid, foundational understanding of the passage so that I can discuss it with anyone at any time.
9. GET INVOLVED IN A LOCAL CHURCH
The last little piece of advice I have for someone who is wanting to study the Bible more is to get to church. Whether or not you are a regular attendee of your church or you haven’t gone to church in a long time, one of the best ways to know how to study your Bible is to go to the place where the Bible is being taught. Get involved in a Bible study that your church is doing or, if there isn’t one, start your own! It’s a great opportunity to be held accountable in your own study of the Bible and it gets other people digging into the Word too. If you are too young to start a Bible study in your home, talk to one of the older leaders in your church about getting one started.
Another thing you can do is to ask a leader in your church if they could help you walk through a book of the Bible with you. As a volunteer in a local church, I thoroughly enjoy when younger girls come up to me and ask me to study a book of the Bible with them. It gets me studying and it helps me really dig into the Word so that I can help the girl(s) understand it better.
Going to church and hearing sermons preached on the passages I am learning about helps me understand it so much better. Different people will glean different things from the same passage of Scripture because it can relate to us in different ways.
As you can see, there are many tips and tricks to start studying your Bible (believe it or not, there are many, many more tips I could add). I hope you have learned the importance of making Bible study the top priority in your life and how to get started on that journey.
Comment below and tell me which tip or trick you are most excited about trying and let me know what book of the Bible you are studying. If you have any questions, comment them below as well.
Sign up for email updates on the right side of your screen to be notified of when I post more Bible-related content. I plan on adding a few more posts about effectively studying the Bible and memorizing passages toward the beginning of the New Year.
We’ve all heard the saying “God is good, all the time.” Many times, it is said during a moment of celebration and triumph. It is not as often used when someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer, or when a family member loses their job. These situations make it feel like God is good MOST of the time but definitely not ALL of the time. But if that were the case, then God would not be God and He would definitely not be good. Because if God is not good all the time, He is not good any of the time. God’s goodness is a vital part of who He is. It is not only a characteristic He has vowed to live by, it is the very essence of His being. God and goodness cannot be separated. Where God goes, goodness goes and where goodness goes, God goes.
“God is good, all the time.” Over the past few years, I have become more aware of the word “all” in this phrase. All… Every millisecond of my life – past, present, and future – God has been good, is still good, and will always be good. No matter what.
When I am weak, God is good. When I am strong, God is good.
When I am lazy, God is good. When I am productive, God is good.
When I am broken, God is good. When I am whole, God is good.
When I am hungry, God is good. When I am full, God is good.
When I feel hurt and rejected, God is good. When I feel loved and cherished, God is good.
If I (somehow) get married in the next two years, God is good and if I never get married, God is still good.
No matter how I feel or where I’m at, God is still good.
Even when I think that God may not be good, God is still good.
God’s goodness is not contingent upon His love for me. If He did not love me, God would still be good… But in His goodness, God has CHOSEN to love me.
Love
During this season of singleness, I have come to recognize God’s love for me in many different ways. Through fellowship with other believers, the simplicity of quiet time in the mornings, and the way that the sun sets over my family’s pasture I see glimpses not only of God Himself but of His love for me and the rest of His creation. Oftentimes, I am so captivated by the Lord that I lose my breath and am at a loss for words.
God’s love is absolutely unimaginable. No matter how hard we try, we could never even begin to fathom the love that the Father has for us.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39, CSB).
Not a thing in this world (or the next) will make the Lord stop loving you. God’s love is like His goodness, it is a part of His divine make-up. He doesn’t go anywhere without it. Like layers of skin, God’s love and goodness hold together all that He is. Without these two parts, God would be just like the rest of us but because His love and goodness are holy by nature, He is far greater and far better than any person on this earth.
Just like goodness, love has started to obtain an inaccurate definition in today’s society. It’s actually not just one inaccurate definition, it is many inaccurate definitions. Love has been a catch-phrase of sorts rather than a meaningful word that actually carries weight for the ears that hear it. The word “love” has lost a lot of its power due to being overused and under-utilized. As humans, we can no longer grasp the significance of what the Bible means when it says “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!” (Ephesians 2:4-5) or “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16). What splendor is lost in these verses when we can only think of “love” as a shallow, ambiguous term. God has proven His deep, immeasurable love for us by giving us His Son as a Savior that conquered sin and death so that we may know God and live forever in His Kingdom.
The gift of eternal life and a restored relationship with the Father gives us a greater understanding of God’s love and His goodness.
I have recently learned of another way that God has shown His love and goodness toward me: contentment.
Contentment
It’s an amazing thing to find yourself completely content in Yahweh Yireh – the God who Provides. Resting in the fact that He alone can satisfy my most anticipated desires enables me to have a deeper understanding of and longing for His Word and, ultimately, Him. When I put my trust in the God who knows what’s best for me, there is nothing I will miss out on. Philippians tells me that I don’t have to be anxious about anything because I’ve continually taken my worries to the Lord and He has given me the peace that passes understanding, (4:6). {Notice I did not say “He gives me what I pray for” but that’s for a different day.}
I used to hear the word “content” thrown around a lot to apply to certain situations in peoples’ lives. “Oh, you should be content with a 3.5 GPA!”… “You just need to be content while you are still single.”… “Once you become content with your current situation, you will get the [job, guy, house, etc.] that the Lord wants for you.” I don’t have a major problem with these too-often used phrases. I do, however, have a problem with the assumption here. The assumption is that our situations are what makes us discontent or content but, as a believer, I would have to disagree.
If I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ll ever find contentment in my singleness. I don’t want to be single. Period. I don’t like it, it hasn’t been good for me, I want out. BUT my singleness has been marked by a contentment that can be found in Christ alone. Just like the peace that passes understanding, I will find myself completely enthralled by the Lord too much to even care about my current situation.
I like to think that Paul was in this state of mind when he penned Philippians while imprisoned in Rome. He had a longing to go to the church in Philippi but his imprisonment kept him from leaving the house. After the Philippians had displayed how much they cared for Paul and his ministry, though they sent no material gift, Paul writes:
“… I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know both how to make do with little and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content – whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me,” (4:11-13).
Paul knew that only Jesus could give satisfaction during times of uncertainty. He was aware that his situation was rough but did not make excuses for losing hope in what Christ was capable of doing. Paul clung to the truth and was content while he was imprisoned. Notice I said while he was imprisoned… not in his imprisonment. Paul makes it clear that Christ is the root of contentment, not the circumstance he was in.
If we cling to Him, we will be content through and in spite of whatever circumstance we face. If we find our satisfaction in the Lord, we will never be let down. Surrender your desires to Him. He can see our future; we can’t. Jesus needs to be enough for us in ALL seasons of life.
All the Above
Through God’s love and goodness, He has gifted me with contentment. I could never be content on my own. If I did not know the love and goodness of God, I would constantly be trying to scratch and claw for the things that I want with no regard to who I was hurting or who I was becoming on my path to proverbial “success”.
But glory be to God that I no longer have to live like that. I can rest in the promises of my Lord and know that His plan for me is greater than anything I could choose for myself. My life is to be lived in pursuit of the One who gave His life to save mine. Contentment is founded and grounded in Christ alone.
It is crazy that it’s already over but I have been personally challenged throughout the course of writing each post. I have learned so much about the Lord and about myself through looking at this story in Scripture. In this post, I am going to share with y’all the different resources I used as assistance for this series. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t use a ton of resources to help me with this study but the ones that I used were definitely effective.
First of all, I obviously used my Bible. Not just one, though… I used four different Bibles to help me in the breaking down of this passage of Scripture.
The main Bible I used was my ESV. I used this translation at the beginning of each of the posts because it is really popular in Christian circles now. I do not normally read the ESV translation (I typically stick with the HCSB or CSB) so reading this passage in a translation that I am not used to helped me more effectively interpret the message.
The next Bible I used throughout this study was the HCSB Apologetics Study Bible. This is the Bible that I have always used to study so I have a lot of extra notes from previous sermons about this particular passage in the margins of this Bible. It was easy for me to just flip to the passage and see a bunch of previously recorded notes about Jesus calming the storm.
In addition to the two Bibles mentioned above, I used the She Reads Truth study bible as well as the HCSB Study Bible. I didn’t end up using these two Bibles a whole lot for this study because I used other resources that I will get to later in this post but I did use a bit of information from each of these Bibles which helped me in constructing my posts.
The only commentary that I used for this study was called “Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Matthew”. The Christ-Centered Expostion series of commentaries has been one of my favorites for a while – I am currently studying through their Hebrews commentary – so I knew that this would be a good resource for me to use as I did the “Calming the Storm” series.
The last but probably most effective resource that I used for this study was the WordSearch Bible by Lifeway. I was gifted a subscription to the WordSearch Bible and have used it more throughout the course of this study than any other time. I have learned to love it and all of its’ features. The main thing that I have used it for is the “word study tool”. Knowing what each word of each of the verses that I went through actually meant made a huge difference for me in my interpretation of the passage. I would highly recommend the WordSeach Bible by Lifeway to anyone who wants access to countless resources at the touch of a button.
I hope that y’all find encouragement to seek out additional resources when you are studying different parts of the Bible but be sure that the resources you use are reputable and based on truth.
“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’” – Matthew 8:23-27
This is the last part of the series! (*tear*) I hope everyone has enjoyed this series and been challenged by it just as I have. In the next few days I will post some closing remarks and include a few different resourses that I’ve used throughout the course of the series.
If you’ve been keeping up with the series, you know that I have been using questions for each of the previous three parts of the series but we’re going to drop them for this post. Hopefully this decision will make sense as you read it…But let’s go ahead and jump into the last part. This is where everything comes together, where it all makes sense.
Click the picture to see more of Alison’s art!
Let’s do a quick recap before getting into the last part of verse 26 and verse 27.
1) Jesus had been preaching all day and wanted to cross the sea so He could preach to a different crowd. He calls the disciples onto the boat after telling them the importance of following Him. (Part I)
2) While they are at sea, there comes a storm that starts constantly swamping the boat with waves causing it to start sinking. During this time, Jesus is asleep. (Part II)
3) The disciples wake Jesus up because they need His help. He questions their lack of faith in Him. (Part III)
After Jesus is rudely woken up from His nap and then questions the disciples faith, some pretty crazy stuff happens:
Jesus stands up after exploiting the lack of faith in the disciples and shuts up a storm that is threatening the lives of the people with Him: “Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm,” (v. 26b). The guy SPEAKS to the storm and it LISTENS! I love the word “rebuked” here because it is translated to “correct” or “warn”. Only someone who has control over something is able to effectively correct or warn it. Jesus was in control of the storm from the beginning. With just three words – “Peace! Be still!” – the storm is put in its rightful place under the authority of Jesus Christ.
How amazing would this have been to witness first-hand?! You’re standing in the boat shoveling water out when Jesus stands up, says three simple words and the waves are stilled, the thunder is hushed, and the clouds are rolled away. I don’t know exactly what I would have done in that moment, but something tells me that my reaction would look something like: “I’m with that guy! I don’t care where He goes or what He does but He has authority and I’m going wherever He wants me to go and doing whatever He wants me to do.”
In verse 27 we see how the disciples react to Jesus’ authority. As Jewish men, they were very familiar with passages like Psalm 89:9 which says, “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them,” and Psalm 107:29: “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” These were verses that the disciples had known about (and possibly memorized) from a very early age. They were aware that God was able to calm storms and settle waves and now that Jesus had demonstrated that same power in front of them, they were amazed at the possibility that Jesus could in fact be the God of the universe.
And now we come to the main point in the entire story: Jesus is God! The authority that belongs to Yahweh of the Old Testament is the same authority that belongs to Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is Creator and Ruler of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. He is powerful, He is holy, He is perfection. He quiets the storms, He heals the lame, He raises the dead. Jesus is the God-Man who holds authority over all of nature. Jesus demonstrates this authority by correcting the actions of the storm. And He wants us to submit to His authority over our lives. He wants to bring us into the boat with Him so that He can demonstrate His power over the storms that often wreak havoc in our lives. He alone has the authority to settle them. No effort we could give will ever be enough to calm the storms. We can try our best to get the water out of the boat but as waves keep crashing in and our physical ability starts to decline, Jesus is the only one who can effectively say “Peace! Be still!” over the storms in our lives.
What a gracious God we have the opportunity to serve! Jesus continues to demonstrate His authority over the storms in my life and I pray that He is doing the same for you!
“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’” – Matthew 8:23-27
Throughout the course of the “Calming the Storm” series on the blog, I want to answer three questions for each part of the series:
1) What is happening in this verse?
2) What does this verse mean for me?
3) What does this verse teach me about Jesus?
I also want to encourage you to ask me questions in the comments or just email them to me if there is something that you are confused by or if you just have a question about the passage as a whole. My goal in this study is to encourage a deeper understanding of God’s Word and a longing to know Him better so that we may fall more in love our Creator each day.
Matthew 8:23 is a very simple sentence when you first read over it. It is pretty clear what is happening here: Jesus is leading His disciples onto a boat.
He had just finished preaching about parables and had healed quite a few people which resulted in a large following. As with most cases when Jesus started to inherit a large crowd, He wanted to leave, so they got into the boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.
But I want you to take a look at the previous two verses (21-22):
“Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’”
This makes verse 23 that much more important:
“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.”
Jesus had just finished talking about the importance of following Him; how it should be the most important thing in our entire lives. We know this from other instances in Scripture (Matthew 4:19, Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23) but I wanted to point out the hidden message in this passage and how each part of this story can apply to our lives.
2) What does this verse mean for me?
The correct response to Jesus’ leading us is to follow Him. We may not know where we are going or the condition of the boat we may be getting into but the application for us from verse 23 is to have enough faith to follow Jesus onto the boat. We will see later in this passage that having faith to follow Him onto the boat is not going to be enough. But it is the initial step of faith that the disciples demonstrate in this verse that we must also display in our own lives.
This could look a lot different for each one of us. For me, having enough faith to step onto the boat could mean that I take a job as a volunteer middle school girls youth leader. I could have made up excuses for reasons that I couldn’t be their youth leader or I could have just flat-out said “no” but I decided to follow Jesus into the boat that He has led me on to. It took a lot of faith in who He is for me to be able to say “yes” to that position but I know that I have a great opportunity to pour into the lives of these middle school girls and that Jesus is with me always.
For other people, stepping into the boat may be moving away from home for the first time. Freshmen in college will be moving into their dorms in about a month from now and I know that it is scary to move away from home for the first time. But if you have prayed about your college decision and have found a ministry to get plugged into while you are away from home, you have displayed enough faith to follow Jesus onto the boat.
For many of us, the biggest step of faith we ever had to take was confessing Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It may not seem like it for all of us but stepping onto that boat was the hardest decision in our entire life. Some people had to give up hobbies and interests, some people had to give up friends, and some people even had to give up family members and careers as a result of following Jesus onto the boat. It took a lot of faith to give up those things and follow Him.
The biggest point of this verse as far as what it means for us is that Jesus is worth following. It is the most important decision we will ever make this side of heaven and it is indeed one that we will regret if we decide not to follow Him.
I also want to point out that we should never stop following Jesus. Following Him onto the boat is one thing, and it is indeed a great thing. But once we get to the other shore, we can’t just say, “Okay, I followed Him onto the boat once so I’m done following Him.” Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24 to take up our cross DAILY and follow Him. It isn’t something we do once and then forget about. Following Jesus is like a job: if we don’t show up, we don’t get rewarded. We either have faith to follow Him onto the boat and recognize the importance of that, or we don’t. There is no in between.
3) What does this verse teach me about Jesus?
Here is where I will park the “boat”, so to speak. This verse is very simple, as I said before, but there is SO MUCH to say about who Jesus is from these 11 words.
The first thing that I want to point out about Jesus in this verse is that He gets into the boat with the disciples. Now, this may be a very minor point if we didn’t know one other thing about Jesus. But in Matthew 14:22-34, we know that He possessed the ability to walk on water. Could he have walked on the water beside the boat in this passage in Matthew 8 too? I believe He could have if He had wanted to. But He opted to get into the boat with the disciples. Why?
I think it is no simpler than the fact that He knew the limitations of the disciples and that they were tired from walking around with Him all day. He met them where they were at and stooped down to their level. He knew that they didn’t have the ability to walk on the water like He did so He led them onto the boat. Now, Do I believe that Jesus could have helped them out onto the water as He did with Peter in Matthew 14:22-34? Absolutely. But we have to remember that the disciples had just started following Jesus only a few chapters earlier and maybe didn’t have that much faith in Him yet. Heck, they barely had enough faith to get into the boat with Him. I’m sure they would have thought He was crazy and dipped out if He had told them to walk on the water with Him.
I think that this story really demonstrates Jesus’ ability to relate to us as humans. I know that I often think of Jesus as much higher than us, reaching down to pull us up when we don’t have enough faith but that is not always the case. We need to understand that Jesus constantly reaches out to help us where we are. He relates to us so impeccably that He was able to take our place on the cross and bear God’s wrath for us. He does not reach down to help us, He reaches out to save us. He is standing in front of us, leading us onto the boat knowing that He is all we need to get through whatever comes next.
Like I said at the beginning of the post, please do not hesitate to ask me a question via comment or email. I will be glad to answer any question that comes my way!
I hope y’all enjoyed reading this first of four “main point” posts from the “Calming the Storm” series. I really enjoy writing about the Bible and showing people more of who Jesus is. If there is a topic that you would like for me to write about, let me know! I have ideas for upcoming series’ but I want to know what you guys want me to write about. Let me know in the comments!
The only commentary that I used for this study was called “Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Matthew”. The Christ-Centered Expostion series of commentaries has been one of my favorites for a while – I am currently studying through their Hebrews commentary – so I knew that this would be a good resource for me to use as I did the “Calming the Storm” series.
lightwalk 