Monday, 6/20/2011
Reading: Mark 4:35-41
Reflection: OK...so this entrance is going to be VERY REFLECTIVE and not so STUDIED. When I say reflective, I simply mean that as I was reading this passage...a bit later in the morning than usual I must admit...an Old Testament Scriptures seemed to stick in my mind...in fact, a psalm. That psalm is Psalm 4:8 where the author states, "In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety." This Psalm is what you might call an evening song of deliverance. As a Psalm of David...who certainly knew what it was like to be chased through the storms of life...it was a prayerful song that was to allow a person to rest well...even in the face of threats and challenges...because they knew that nothing could befall them that God did not allow. It was this certainty in God's sovereignty, not the calmness of life's situations, that allowed the person to rest well. It seems to me that this may be what allows Jesus to rest while all the others are scared to death. It is not that Jesus is unconcerned about the storms of life...or for that matter naive to their existence. It's simply that He has a "faith" in God's sovereign presence that far exceeds that of His disciples. Jesus knows that nothing can happen to Him unless His Father has ordained it...and if His Father has ordained it He will accept it. I could use a bit more of this faith in my life. I don't mean a naive wish that my life will be a calm sea, but a confidence that in the midst of the storm God is in control...and I can still be at rest.
Tom - thanks for your thoughts - I'm a couple of days behind but perhaps right on schedule as this spoke to me at a deep level - and was right along the same lines as my observations. Thanks for the reference to Psalm 4 and thanks again for your leadership in the Mark study this summer! (I'll be interested to study just what Mark meant when he said they took Jesus along, just as he was . . . my hunch is that He was just incredibly tired.)
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