Meet Me on the Other Side

On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.

But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:35-41

In my very limited study of the Bible, I am amazed at the wonderful and powerful messages that the Word of God provides for us to live our lives successfully. I have recently finished the Book of Mark and with my first real reading through this book, I believe these stories have profound lessons about our lives.

I titled this post “Meet Me on the Other Side” because in the second story Jesus said to his disciples “to go to the other side.”

Let’s take a look at the facts about our lives for a moment, if you are reading this your were born. This is a fact. And it is a miracle as well. With millions of parts from your father and one egg from your mother, the combination of these things created… YOU! This is a miracle. Not only that you were created but you were created for a Godly purpose that only YOU can fulfill.

Let’s take a look at the second fact… You will die.

There is no stopping it.

There is no avoiding it.

It is going to happen.

So what do we all have between the time that we are born and the time we die?

TIME!

For this post we are going to equate Time with the Sea.

In the first example, it seems that when they left the land every thing was calm but them a storm arose and the disciples started to panic while Jesus was calmly getting some, probably, much needed rest.

With all the waves crashing around them the disciples woke up Jesus to see if He was concerned that the ship was going to sink, and He said, “Peace, be still!” And everything around them became calm.

He went onto ask them why did they had such little faith and they made it to the other side.

Are there some storms in your life right now that Jesus can bring calmness too? Remember, time is like the sea sometimes it will be calm and sometimes it will be stormy, we need to have faith that Jesus will bring us through the stormy parts.

Let’s look at the second story:

Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.

Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land.

Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.

And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.

For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. Mark 6:45 – 52

This time Jesus was not with them on the boat. So they were pretty much going alone on this one so they thought… but Jesus noticed that they were struggling with the wind against them.

Have you ever felt like you had to face your challenges alone?

Well according to this example, Jesus will not leave you there in your struggles, He will even walk on water to get to you. And in this case the disciples couldn’t believe their eyes, probably because in their minds they couldn’t comprehend that there was anyone who could walk on water but Jesus can meet you no matter where you are with any struggle that you may find yourself with.

And then He greeted them with this statement, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” and then He got on to the boat with them and everything became calm.

In my amateur understanding of the Bible, I can only assume that the reason why they were struggling was because they thought they were alone, because Jesus was not physically there with them. And their hearts were hardened because of this even though they had witnessed miracles prior to this happening.

They had lost there faith and the struggles began to happen.

When we look at our lives and the time between birth and death, all we have is time.

Our focus during that time will determine the storms we have in our lives. When we focus our efforts on living for God and God’s glory, we will be blessed. And when we feel things aren’t happening the right way in our lives, we can probably draw the source of these storms from when we take our focus off of God and living for His glory.

Are you facing some storms in your life right now? Turn to Jesus and ask Him for help and He will walk out to wherever you are and probably say, “Peace, be still!” and calm the storms around you.

BUT… In order to make this happen, we have to have FAITH!!!

As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,

God Bless You,

John Clark