Faith & Storms 2 (Mark 6:45-56)

We're gonna be in the Gospel of Mark in chapter six.

If you need a Bible and you don't have one in front of you, we'd love to bring one to you.

So just raise your hand, and Brian would love to bring in that Bible.

And we love to have everybody sitting there with an open Bible highlighting and underlining and doing all of those things.

And that's something we've talked about before, but that I really encourage if you're okay with it.

Some people aren't okay with writing in their Bibles, but to write in your Bible in the margins and underline and highlight so that the next time that you go through, there might be some things that are said today that are gonna help trigger some things maybe a couple years from now when you actually are back in that portion of the Bible again.

But if you would like when we're gonna be in the CSB translation, and if you'd like that translation, like I said, just raise your hand and we would love to bring one to you.

Now, uh, before we jump into the text, the we're gonna start in verse 45 of chapter six.

But just to kind of give you some context, we're picking up from where we were last week, where Jesus fed the 5,000 people with the loaves and the fish miraculously.

And so this has just taken place, and these people are well fed and they're satisfied.

They've been fed by their good shepherd.

And then we're gonna pick up in verse 45, right after that happened.

So if you're able, would you please stand with me for the reading of God's word?

It says, Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Beth Seda, while he dismissed the crowd.

After he said goodbye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray.

Well into the night the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land.

He saw them, straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.

Very early in the morning he came toward them, walking on the sea, and wanted to pass by them.

When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, and they cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke with them and said, Have courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

They were completely astounded, because they had not understood about the loaves.

Instead their hearts were hardened.

When they had crossed over they came to the shore of Gennesarat and anchored there.

As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him.

They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe, and everyone who touched it was healed.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you specifically for this passage that we're in here this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would open our ears and our eyes and our hearts to the things that you have for us, that you would speak clearly to each one of us exactly what it is that you want us to get out of this and to understand.

And that's going to help us to know you better, to know your character, to know your heart.

Lord, show us and reveal those things to us.

Lord, I pray that you would help me to rightly divide your word here this morning, and that you would use me as your mouthpiece.

Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit to speak the truth of your word, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

And I'm gonna join you because my back is still a little.

Uh I had a few issues last week and then I was feeling pretty good yesterday, and I got a little ambitious.

It crawled up into my attic to do some electrical work.

And I kind of overdid a little bit.

But anyway.

No, I'm fine.

I'm doing good.

This is just more of a precaution than anything else.

So okay, so as we've been making our way through the Gospel of Mark, a few of the themes that have really started to kind of jump out at me.

Um there's two of them actually.

The first one is faith is really important to God.

It seems to come up in some capacity every Sunday that we jump into the Gospel of Mark.

You know, we saw a few weeks ago that God is not limited by our lack of faith, but we are limited by our lack of faith.

You know, we're recognizing that God can still do whatever he wants, but we can really miss out on some incredible things if our faith is lacking.

And then the second thing that seems to keep jumping out at me is that Jesus continues to give his disciples opportunities to build their faith.

And that this is really important, and it's a priority for Jesus to give his disciples an opportunity to build their faith.

And we just keep seeing it coming up over and over, and we're gonna see it again here today.

But before we jump into this text, I want to give a disclaimer.

The story of Jesus walking on water, it appears in Matthew, it appears in Mark, and it appears in John.

Luke is the only gospel that doesn't have this story in it.

So we're gonna be borrowing from Matthew and from John to kind of pick up on some of the extra details of this story that we find in Mark to kind of just kind of fill in some of the blanks for us.

And the other thing is before we jump in, is I really want you to picture yourself in this boat when we get to that section, of what it was truly like to be a disciple in this boat in the middle of the sea.

It's dark, it's windy, the waves are crashing, and you're out there for a really long time, you're probably soaking wet, probably chilled to the bone, your back's aching because you've been battling these oars for all of these hours.

But I think it's going to be really important for us to really imagine the true state that the disciples are in.

Because we've gone through this story, you know, if you've been following the Lord for any amount of time, you've probably heard it preached on many, many times.

But the thing is, when we put ourselves there where the disciples are, this is a scary, dangerous, real position that they're in.

So this whole time as we're going through, just picture yourself sitting right there next to the disciples in the boat.

So we're gonna pick up right in verse 45 and start going through it.

It says immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Beth Seda, while he dismissed the crowd.

After he said goodbye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray.

So this long day of ministry was done.

The thousands of people were fed, and in John's gospel it tells us that the people are now starting to recognize that Jesus is the Messiah.

And that Jesus perceived that they wanted to take him by force, it says, and to make him their king.

So Jesus doesn't uh like what he's seeing.

He's starting to see, okay, this crowd's getting almost a little militant.

They're gonna take him by force and make him king.

So he's starting to sense that this is happening.

But what they're trying to do is they're trying to make Jesus king in their own timing.

They're trying to coerce God into what they think he should be doing.

Remember, they thought that the Messiah was gonna come to end Roman oppression, to end Roman occupation of the Israeli land.

And they were looking forward to this political leader that was gonna come and save them physically.

You know, and as far as we can tell, the disciples are still in this same school of thought as the crowd was.

You know, in chapter 8 of Mark, we're gonna be there here in two chapters, but we're going to see Jesus explaining the coming rejection that he's gonna experience from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and that he's going to die and that he's gonna be raised again on the third day.

And Peter starts to rebuke him.

Do you remember this story?

And then this is where Jesus has that famous line of, get behind me, Satan.

You know, all of this tells me that the disciples are in the same school of thought of this crowd.

You know, they may have even been a part of the whole, let's make him our king now.

Let's just let's get this ball rolling and let's make this happen.

So Jesus sees all of this, he perceives this, and he tells his disciples, hey, get in the boat.

Go across the sea, I'm gonna go meet you there later.

You guys just get in the boat, I'll dismiss the crowd, I'll take care of this, and then I'm gonna go up on the mountain and I'm gonna pray.

And I'm gonna get alone with the Father.

So he does all of those things, and as we see as Jesus' custom, he gets a way to pray.

You know, oftentimes when we've had a long day of ministry, uh, you know, as we see here, and maybe it even ends in a little bit of drama and we're exhausted, the temptation is to want to veg out and maybe binge watch something just because we're so exhausted, or maybe sleep in a little bit the next day and we're gonna skip our Bible reading or our praying or something like that just because we're so tired.

But Jesus gives us an example over and over again of either getting up early after a long day of ministry or going off in the evening to pray after a very long day of ministry.

And that is his custom, that's his habit, that's what he does.

And if Jesus needed to do these things, I think that we doubly need to do these things.

You know, we need to find our refreshing and our rejuvenation from God, not from binge watching something on Netflix.

You know, we need to go back to the source of rest and of joy and of peace, which is God.

And we need to recognize a fresh and anew, as we talked about last week, that God is God and that our dependence is fully upon him.

You know, it's not only what Jesus does, but it's the example that he left for us all throughout the Gospels, so that we can be just like our rabbi.

These are the things that we need to be doing in our life.

And I'm talking to myself just as much as I'm talking to you, because that is the temptation to just, hey, I'm gonna sleep in, I'm gonna get away.

But Jesus just keeps pressing into the Father over and over again.

So we're back to our scene here uh with Jesus and his disciples.

Jesus diffuses the situation, he heads up the mountain to pray.

The disciples are heading across the sea, and we pick up in verse 47.

It says, Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea.

And John's gospel tells us they were about three or four miles out, and he was alone on the land.

Verse 48.

He saw them straining at the oars because the wind was against them.

So they're well into the night.

They've been out there a while.

John's gospel tells us they're three or four miles, they're about halfway across the Sea of Galilee.

And Jesus could see them, it says, straining at the oars, fighting the wind.

Now, the Greek word for straining right here is I'm gonna mess this up, Angie.

Please forgive me.

Angie knows Greek, uh, bassinitso.

Uh, and it means to test metals by the touchstone.

And a touchstone is a black um silicone rock or stone used to test the purity of gold or silver by rubbing on it.

And by how dark the mark was, they could tell how pure the gold or the silver was.

And the most common English word translation for this, this is the only time that it's uh it's translated as straining, but the most common English translation is torment.

It's used eight times within the New Testament.

So this word that he's using for what they're doing with the oars, it's referring to a test, specifically a test for purity.

They were being tested for purity at the oars.

It's kind of what in the original Greek you would kind of gain from this language.

Now, from Jesus' vantage point, he saw their difficulty and he cared about their circumstance.

And if you do the math, they'd probably been rowing for about eight hours at this point, out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, dark and in a storm.

Have you ever been out in a boat rowing or been on one of the machines?

You know, you do that for 20 minutes and you're back, you know, and your arms and your hands.

I mean, that is quite a workout that they're getting, and they've been at it for about eight hours or so.

And these disciples, you know, they've at this point they probably have blisters forming on their hands.

They have aching backs and aching arms after a really long day of ministry.

They're probably, as I referred to earlier, they're probably soaking wet.

They're probably chilled to the bone by the wind at this point.

And do you know where they are?

They're in the middle of God's will.

Think about that.

They're in the middle, they're doing exactly what Jesus told them to do.

And they're crossing the sea.

And I mention that because Jesus never alludes to his disciples or anyone else that following him is gonna be easy.

You know, in John's gospel in chapter 16, he actually tells them, In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world.

You know, I think as Christians, this is something that we don't want to wrap our heads around.

These aren't the verses that you see on people's t-shirts, are they?

You know, this concept that we can be in the hardest trial of our life and still be in the center of God's will.

That's a tough one, isn't it, to be a disciple of Jesus and to wrap our heads around this.

But I want you to notice that Jesus was not afraid for them or afraid for their safety.

He knew they were okay.

He knew that their time to die had not come.

But he cared that they were struggling because he loves them.

But he's also not going to pluck them out from their circumstances like a helicopter parent, you know, at the first sign of any danger that they experience.

But he sees them and he cares.

You know, this storm and this trial, it's training, it's giving them tools for later.

And Jesus is going to allow them to be tossed around for a bit until they've learned exactly what he's trying to teach them.

And we're gonna get to that here in a second, but we're gonna jump into the second half of verse 48 first.

So look at that with me.

It says very early in the morning, he came toward them walking on the sea, and he wanted to pass by them.

So when we read this, does anyone gather that Jesus was in a hurry?

I mentioned this, you know, when we covered the first storm that we looked at a couple weeks ago, uh, the one where Jesus is sleeping in the boat and they're out in the sea and the storm comes.

You know, this story that we're covering today, it's known as and it's referred to Jesus walks on water.

That might even be a heading in your Bible that you can see.

It's not Jesus ran on water.

Jesus is up the hill praying.

He sees his disciples laboring, trying to row in the wind and the waves, and he walks out to them.

He walks.

Few miles of water that he needs to cross.

Who knows how far it was from the top of the mountain to the shore?

So we're talking about several, several miles that Jesus is walking just to get out to his disciples.

This could have taken multiple hours for him to get out there.

And we learn in Matthew's gospel that Jesus didn't get out to the boat until the fourth watch of the night, which is between 3 a.m.

and 6 a.m.

That's where we get the eight hours of straining, as if we go all the way from about when it was dark to 3 a.m.

or so.

So it could have been even longer than that.

So Jesus is obviously not as concerned with his disciples' safety as the disciples are.

And we talked about this extensively when we saw that that first storm in chapter 4, but Jesus is giving his disciples an opportunity to trust him and an opportunity to build their faith.

He's allowing them to be in a position to trust God and to not just trust him, but to trust them a little bit more than they had to last time.

And because of that, I want to compare and contrast the first storm that we saw in chapter four and the storm that we're looking at here today.

Notice that Jesus was in the boat with them in the first storm.

Yes, he was sleeping, but he was still there with them.

And now in the second storm, Jesus isn't in the boat at all.

He still shows up, but he's allowing them to experience the storm a bit longer and in a way that appears as if God is more distant.

This is Jesus giving them a little more and a little more.

You know, and that's how God allows our faith to be built by experiencing something and then watching him come through.

And then experiencing something a little bit more and then watching him come through again.

And we're watching this pattern right now with his own disciples.

And I kind of wonder when the storm started, if they thought of the first storm, you know, like, oh, here we go again.

We've been here before, you know.

And last time, you know, maybe they're thinking, well, you know, last time we were fine and Jesus bailed us out, so we're gonna be fine again.

But then maybe they started to notice things were a bit different from the first storm, you know.

Well, last time Jesus was in the boat with us, and last time we weren't out here for so long.

And at this point, last time, Jesus had already quieted the sea and the wind.

By the way, where's Jesus?

He's he's nowhere to be seen at this point.

And then on top of that, they think they saw a ghost.

So that's why I say, put yourself in the boat with these disciples, thinking all they're thinking, experiencing all that they're experiencing.

And then look at verse 49 with me.

It says, When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out because they all saw him and were terrified.

So I want you to picture this in your mind.

Place yourself in that boat.

The wind, the waves, being soaking wet and exhausted, wondering if you're ever gonna see land again.

And then this happens.

They look out and they see a figure that looks like a form of a human, but the guy's not sinking.

Because, you know, they're thinking, well, gravity works this way.

If that's a human, they should be sinking.

He's not sinking, therefore, this must be a goat, a ghost.

So, in short, the disciples are absolutely freaking out in this moment and they're crying out as well.

Look at the second half of verse 50 with me.

It says, Immediately he spoke with them and said, Have courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

Again, picture yourself right there in the disciples' shoes.

What is going on?

You know, Matthew's gospel says they were crying out in fear.

They probably thought that they were hallucinating.

You're probably wondering, like, well, you know that food that Jesus just multiplied?

What was that stuff made out of?

You know?

Like they'd never had that before.

And but they're just losing it.

And what's the first words out of Jesus' mouth?

Have courage.

It is I.

Don't be afraid.

I imagine at this point the yelling stops, and they're just kind of looking at each other, thinking, what on earth did we sign up for?

Can this get any weirder or more unpredictable following Jesus?

You know, I just imagine at this point that Jesus walks over to the boat, and the disciples' eyes are as big as saucers, and they're just speechless, just kind of like, what is going on here?

And Jesus says, Have courage.

Don't be afraid.

I'm here.

Jesus cares and he knows and he sees.

In the middle of panic and fear and uncertainty, you know, as we watch the news and our hearts sink, as it seems like everything around us is on fire.

And it seems like everything just continues to get worse and worse, and everything just looks like insanity around us.

Jesus wants to say those same things to us.

Don't panic, don't fear, don't be afraid, have courage.

I'm still here, I still know the beginning from the end.

Stay the course that I've set you on and continue to trust in me and continue to find joy even in the trial.

Have confidence.

My this is my encouragement to you to have confidence that he that began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

Take comfort that he will never leave us or abandon us.

Because a good shepherd, as we saw last week, would never do that.

So Jesus shows up, he speaks these words of encouragement and comfort in the middle of the chaos.

And as I mentioned at the start, you know, we see this story in three different gospels.

And so, right in between verse 50 and 51 of Mark's gospel, Matthew interjects Peter walking on water.

So, what I want you to do is I want you to keep one finger.

In the Gospel of Mark and flip one book to the left, and we're going to go to Matthew 14, 28 through 31.

And we're going to go and read about this part that Mark doesn't talk about because it's a great story about Peter and about faith.

And it's probably going to be a while before we're actually in the Gospel of Matthew.

So I figured let's make sure we cover this today.

So we're going to be Matthew 14, starting in verse 28, and reading through verse 31.

And we're going to pick up right after Jesus says, Have courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

So Matthew 14, 28 says, Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him, command me to come to you on the water.

He said, Come.

And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, got hold of him, and said to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

So, Jesus makes himself known, and Peter, being the ready fire aimed disciple, says, Command me to come out to you on the water.

You know, and I say this in jest, but I could imagine Peter thinking, Man, if I could learn this skill, think of what this could do for my fishing business.

I'm not going to need a boat anymore.

I could just walk out on the sea.

But poor Peter, you know, he always the big target and he's easy to joke about.

But he has way more courage than I do.

You know, he was up for anything.

And God used that through the refining and guidance of the Holy Spirit to be a foundation that he used to build the church.

And I want us to think about where Peter is in terms of his discipleship with Jesus Christ at this point.

He's fresh off of getting back from his mini trip that Jesus sent the disciples on, where they were preaching, healing, casting out unclean spirits.

He just got to take part in the feeding of the 5,000.

I'm almost wondering, you know, if Peter's confidence is starting to build a little bit.

You know, maybe he's thinking, you know, Jesus is empowering us to do what he's doing.

So, hey, maybe I can do what Jesus is doing.

Walking on water.

And Jesus says, Yes, yes, you can.

Come.

Like, get out of the boat.

Come to me.

You can do the same things that I'm doing.

So Peter does.

And it's working.

And Peter, through faith in the power and authority of Jesus, is now walking on water.

You know, for Peter, not overthinking it is actually working in his favor at this moment.

You know, he's thinking, I'm walking on water with Jesus.

We're defying every physical law of gravity right now.

And I'm not only witnessing a miracle, but I'm part of it.

This is amazing.

You know, this could be some of the thoughts that are going through his mind.

And then, you know, he's having all those thoughts, and then it's like, whoa.

You know, actually, this wind is strong.

And these waves seem to be getting bigger.

What happens if God stops holding me up?

What happens if I can't make it back to the shore?

You know, I could die out here.

And Peter starts to sink.

And then he cries out, Lord, save me.

So to his credit, he didn't just try to swim harder.

He cried out to Jesus for help.

So in that respect, we see, I think, Peter growing.

And Jesus reaches out his hand and he grabs onto Peter and he saves him.

And then he says, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

You know, I think as we read through this, if we read through it in a hurry, we can almost read what Jesus said in a condescending tone.

You know, you have little faith, why did you doubt?

But I don't think that's as condescending as it may sound at first pass.

Jesus didn't say, you have no faith.

He said little faith.

Think of the faith that Peter did have.

He had enough faith to step over the side of the boat, to place that first foot on the water, and then that second foot.

And then to allow his full weight to be placed on that water.

Now, if you remember the first storm we covered in Mark 4, where Jesus was asleep in the boat, the disciples wake him up, he quiets the storm.

And do you guys remember what Jesus says?

He said, Why are you afraid?

Do you still have no faith?

So Peter's moving up.

His faith has grown since the last storm.

Jesus tells him that he now has a little bit of faith.

He needs a lot more, but he's headed in the right direction.

That's why I don't think Jesus was being condescending here.

I think he was just making an honest assessment and recognition of where Peter's level of faith was in this moment.

So let's flip back to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, and we're going to pick back up in verse 51.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

It says, Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

So John's Gospel says that when Jesus gets in the boat, that not only did the wind cease, but they arrived instantly at the other side of the sea.

So these miracles just keep coming and they keep coming.

And I imagine the disciples are just frozen.

Think of everything that they've just witnessed, just in the last couple minutes of Jesus walking on water and then calming the storm and then arriving at their destination and Peter walking on water as well.

That's a lot to take in in just a couple moments.

And it says in the second half of verse 51, they were completely astounded.

You know, I guess so.

I think I really would be too.

Now, at this point in Matthew's gospel, it says, Then those in the boat worshiped him and said, Truly you are the Son of God.

And to me, that just makes sense that they would be worshiping and that that would be their response.

You know, what else would you do when you come face to face with the divine power of God?

That just demonstrated authority over the laws of gravity and authority over weather and over the laws of time and space.

You know, much like we see in Isaiah chapter 6, I think when you witness all those things, you fall down in a heap before the glory of God and you worship him.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And that's what the disciples' natural was response was right here in our story: worshiping Jesus.

Look at verse 52 with me.

It says, Because they had not understood about the loaves, instead, their hearts were hardened.

You know, at first glance, this is kind of a tough verse to comprehend.

Like, what does the loaves and fishes have to do with everything that just happened?

But basically, the disciples just saw Jesus multiply food miraculously in a way that only he could do.

But somehow are still limiting Jesus' power in their mind.

The loaves and fish should have been enough to recognize that Jesus is the Son of God.

But something happened in their hearts and their hearts were hardened.

The multiplying of the loaves and fish should have been enough to make the disciples and the thousands fall down at Jesus' feet and worship him.

Shouldn't it have been?

But instead, they tried to make Jesus who they wanted him to be.

Think about that for a second.

Instead of just worshiping and recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, they tried to make him into what they wanted him to be.

And it wasn't until Jesus does these things out on the water that they allow Jesus to be who Jesus is.

And they simply fall down and worship him.

Not for what he does for them, but for who he is.

In a storm or out of a storm, in the water or on the land.

You know, when we see him and when we don't see him, when we're hungry and when we're well fed.

As we just sang, in every season.

Not for what he does for us, but because of who he is.

Look at verse 53 with me.

It says when they had crossover, they came to shore at Ganesaret and anchored there.

Whew, what a night.

They finally made it.

They're there at the shore.

They had a really long day of ministry the day before, followed by not just staying up all night, but fighting a storm all the way through the night.

And then verse 54, it says, As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him.

They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

So that we see the compassion of Jesus continuing to come out.

Verse 56.

And everyone who touched it was healed.

So the word continues to spread about Jesus.

And the sick just want to touch the hem of his garment.

Which makes me think about the story of the woman with the flow of blood.

Maybe that story had gotten out.

Like, hey, all you got to do is go up to this guy and touch the hem of his garment.

And he has enough power that that's all you need.

Because they're coming to him and just saying, Can we just do that?

They're recognizing that Jesus is so powerful that just touching his clothes can heal them if their faith is found in him.

So these last two weeks, you know, we saw the feeding of the 5,000, we saw Jesus walking on water, calming a storm, people being healed just by the by touching Jesus' clothes.

To me, all of that points to the same thing that Jesus has power and authority over everything.

That Jesus is not confined by the laws of nature.

And think about it because he's actually the one that spoke the laws of nature into existence.

So they have to obey him.

And we see him multiply matter, we see him defy gravity, we see him reverse sickness and disease and injury.

Now it's my prayer that as we see all of these things from the last two weeks, two weeks, that our faith, our personal faith, is increased.

That instead of seeing the storms of life, instead of seeing waves heading toward us, instead of seeing the negative that's around us, that we see Jesus standing on top of all of those things.

In control of all of them, having authority to tell those things what to do, and they obey.

As we realize that God is in control of the smallest details of our life, we need to remember that he's in control of everything.

And that just because we don't see Jesus Jesus in that present moment, in that present situation, it doesn't mean that he doesn't see us.

It doesn't mean that he doesn't care.

And it doesn't mean that he's not on the way.

It just may mean that there's something he wants us to learn in the process.

Or there's something he wants to strengthen us in, like our faith, like we're seeing right here with the disciples.

And maybe he's trying to teach us that we shouldn't worship him just because of what he does for us, but that we should worship him because of who he is.

That we should worship him because of how much he means to us.

And an increased patience and trust in God's timing, and an awe of God that makes us daily fall at the feet of Jesus, recognizing his power and authority and his love and his compassion that he has for us for each one of us.

That's my prayer and that's my hope for us today.

So would you pray with me?

Jesus, we recognize your power and your authority.

And we come to you wanting to be your disciplers, wanting to be your followers, or being your disciples, I should say, wanting to be your followers.

But I pray that you would do wonderful and amazing things in and through us in every season.

Lord, if we're on a mountaintop and things are amazing, I pray that the first thing we do would fall to our knees and thank you.

And Lord, if we're in the middle of a sea, in the middle of a storm, that we would continue to worship you because you haven't changed.

You are still God of everything and God over all.

And you have power and authority over every little detail in our life.

And Lord, if we're found in that storm and we're starting to doubt, and we're our eyes are are coming off of you and and onto the waves.

That you know and that you care about what we're going through.

Even if our safety, Lord, isn't what you're worried about, because you know the beginning from the end.

But I pray that we would know that you care and that we would continue just to depend upon you at every moment.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.