Where Is Your Faith?

And He said to them, “Where is your faith?”  They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”
Luke 8:25

The background of the above verse is when Jesus and His disciples were in the boat, heading to the other side of Lake Gennesaret (in my NASB Bible, the study notes indicate Luke is the only one to call it a lake. It is also known in the Gospels as the Sea of Galilee, and John calls it the Sea of Tiberias). This story is when Jesus calms the sea, and it follows the parables of the sower and the lamp.

As they were sailing, a storm came up. The wind began to blow, the waves began to be tossed about and slam up against the boat. I’m sure it was a pretty frightening place to be in the midst of a storm.  No doubt the disciples thought they were going to die if something didn’t happen quickly!

Now, they obviously knew that Jesus could save them, but they seemed to think that He had to be awake in order to do something about their situation.  Jesus, in my opinion, rebuked the men when he asked them, “Where is your faith?”  It seems to me as though Jesus was hinting at the fact that his disciples didn’t need Him to be awake in order for them to be saved.  He was right there, in their midst, after all.

Hindsight, for us reading it a couple thousand years later, would tell us it wasn’t Jesus’ time – it wasn’t time for Him to die, so there was no way they’d perish in this storm (though I’m sure at that particular time, the disciples didn’t know what Jesus was going to have to go through, and therefore wouldn’t know that it wasn’t “His time” yet.

We are a lot like those disciples.  At least I know I am.  I get into situations where I am afraid.  It doesn’t matter what the situation is.  It doesn’t matter if we are in an actual situation in which we could die if something isn’t done (such as being in a boat on open water during a storm like the disciples were).  It doesn’t matter if we are in a situation that could cause us to potentially lose our job (such as a company downsizing) and we wonder how we’ll pay our bills or feed our families.  The point is, we (or at least I) get scared.  We become afraid.  We wonder what is going to happen.

Sure, we may call out to the Lord.  We may pray for Jesus to save us, or we ask Him to prevent the situation from happening so that we don’t have to go through it or be in such a bind because of it.  But do you know what?  Jesus is right there with us!

We are not showing faith if we don’t believe that Jesus will get us through our particular situation.  We are not showing faith if we worry and fret about the results (or potential results) of whatever it is we are going through, or possibly facing.

I’m not saying that our faith (blind or otherwise) will prevent us from ever worrying about anything ever again.  It’s not like that.  We are still human, we still make mistakes, we still fail, and we have lessons to learn.  But the point is, that when we are faced with situations that could result in disastrous outcomes, we need to have faith that Jesus is with us the entire way.  He is there if we are able to avoid a disastrous outcome; He is there if we get the outcome we desire; He is there if we have to struggle through a storm for a significant amount of time before we get to the other side.  HE IS THERE WITH US.

So, when you are faced with any situation – be it good or bad – Jesus is with you.  If you have asked Him into your heart, if He is your Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) is with you.  We have nothing to fear.  We need to have faith.

Where is your faith?