Stress, the ultimate disease if you ask me, super contagious, deadly, and harmful to our mind and body. As a Christian we all know we should put full faith into the Lord and know that he knows our whole life before we actually live it, yet we still let stress get the best of us. Why do we stress, is it that we are simply human, or is there more to it?
The Bible says in Matthew 17:20 that if we had faith the size of a tiny mustard seed we could move mountains. I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen any mountains moving.
“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” – Matthew 17:20
Even when Peter was asked to come walk on water by Jesus, with Jesus, witnessing Jesus standing on nothing but water! Peter still did not trust in him and started to sink. Think about that for a moment; Peter had Jesus in front of him, standing on choppy water, in the middle of the sea, with his hand reached out saying walk with me on this water and he still did not have enough faith! If a man cannot even have faith enough to walk on water with Jesus, while Jesus is walking on water right in front of him, after witnessing many of Jesus’s miracles first hand, how are we supposed to?
“28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. 29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.” – Matthew 14:28-30
We see in Matthew 14:30 where it says when Peter saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; he then let fear take over his faith and began to sink. All of us as humans do this. We “trust” in Jesus until it gets a little choppy, then we lose focus on the fact that he has full control over everything. If we as humans were capable of keeping our faith even through choppy times, fully trusting the lord that he will not let us sink, we would never have anything to fear or stress about. Lets read on through Matthew 14:31-33;
“31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt 32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. 33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.” – Matthew 14:31-33
As it says in Matthew 14:31 Jesus had full control of what would have happened to Peter. As soon as Peter called for help Jesus stretched out his hand, grabbed Peter, and saved him from drowning. Not only did he walk Peter back onto the boat, it says in Matthew 14:32 that Jesus calmed the sea all together. Further proving Jesus our Lord and Savior has complete control over everything. No matter what you are going through God is capable of putting whatever it is to a complete cease, however God knows what we do not. God knows when to intervene, God knows the benefits of what we are going through even if we never figure that out ourselves.
What we don’t see is this end goal that God has for us. We’re only seeing what’s going on now, God already knows our whole life, he knew our whole life before we were even born, he knows the end goal. We only see our struggles that we are going through now but God knows these struggles we are going through now are nothing compared to the greatness we have in store for us later. It’s our choice to choose how we handle our struggles in the meantime, it’s our choice to choose our ultimate end goal.
There’s a bigger purpose to everything we do, there’s a bigger purpose to everything that happens to us, there’s a bigger purpose for every tear we cry. God doesn’t let us suffer in vein, Jesus didn’t suffer in vein, and he was a perfect man. If anything we deserve everything bad that happens to us. Jesus was beaten so badly walking his way to the cross where he would be nailed, and he did nothing wrong. Jesus was the perfect human being, the perfect willing sacrifice.
Jesus descended from heaven to Earth knowing what would happen to him, and you know something, he dealt with everything that was handed to him while he was on earth in the flesh, because he saw the end goal, he saw the end, he knew what he was working his way to. It wasn’t for him, it was for us, it was our salvation. See that’s the difference we’re going through this suffering, we’re going through this pain, this persecution and our end goal is for us, our reward in heaven. Jesus went through it with his end goal not being for him but for us. Jesus did not have to die for himself he was already perfect. Think about that.
Let me ask you a question. How many times do you wake up in the morning for work with just enough time to get to work? My hand is definitely up for every morning. How is it that we have faith that we can just get up, get ready, go outside, get in our car, put the key in the ignition, turn it over, and expect it to start up so we can just take right off? Yet we cannot have faith in the lord when the lord never has and never will fail us? I know we’ve all had that time where we faithfully put that key in the ignition turn it over and nothing happens because our battery died. How is it that we have faith in man made machinery that has failed us before, more than we have faith in our lord and savior Jesus Christ, who just so happens to have created us? The perfect human, the perfect God, the prefect being. Our cars are not perfect yet we have faith to hop in without even inspecting our brakes and expecting them to stop when we hit the peddle. We have to start trusting Jesus like we trust our vehicles.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9
With all that being said when something bad happens we have to start shrugging it off and realize that Jesus has control, we have to start realizing our end goal. Jesus is our end goal. We get Jesus in heaven, he is guiding us there, he is walking us there, he is reaching out his hand and setting us in heaven where he will cease the storm. We must contain our faith even through the choppy waters and believe that Jesus Christ has full absolute control. He knows all, sees all before it happens, Jesus has your best interests in mind. With faith there is no stress for we know God will guide and will help us through.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus please help me realize that anything I may be going through now is only temporary. Jesus help me maintain and grow my faith even through hard times so that I can keep my eyes on the end goal and please you. Lord Jesus help me shine your glory no matter my situation so that I may help others in theirs. Help me know that with you all things are possible with even the smallest of faith, that you know what’s best for me, and that I have nothing to fear with you by my side. I know that by trusting and believing in you Lord no matter what happens to me on earth i am always promised eternal life in heaven. Thank you Jesus, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
