Rest In Peace--Hushing the Storm

And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea,

so that the boat was being covered with the waves;

but Jesus Himself was asleep.
And they came to Him and woke Him, saying,
"Save us, Lord; we are perishing!"
He said to them, "Why are you afraid, 

you men of little faith?"
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea,
and it became perfectly calm.

Matthew 8:24-26

When Jesus was asleep in the boat and the storm arose, His disciples woke Him up as they were afraid. He told the storm to "Hush, be still," and it did. Jesus was asleep, but not with a naivety that caused the storm to overtake Him with fear or physical harm. He arose in power and authority and took care of it. The disciples were afraid of the storm which seemed to be overtaking them. There was a physical threat there, but there was also a great fear that had gripped their hearts.

God's people need to rest in peace, as Jesus was doing in this incident, yet wake up and walk in the power and authority He's given us. As we do, we will rebuke, not only the physical harm, but the fear and terror associated with it. We're not to be asleep, with a naive sort of "peace" which keeps us unaware of what's going on, so that the storm overtakes us. Rather, we are to rest in His peace in the midst of the storm, not allowing fear to grip our hearts, and not allowing the storm to overtake us. We need to know the authority He's given us.

In Mark's version of this account, before they got into the boat Jesus said, "Let us go over to the other side." Jesus knew what He was to do next. He knew they were to go over to the other side of the sea. He was resting on the direction of that Word. The disciples had allowed the chaos of the storm to make them forget His words and their purpose. They lost their way because they got side-tracked with fear. 

When faced with situations that seem threatening, let us resolve to know the Word of God more intimately--the written, the spoken and the living Word--Jesus Himself. And let us also resolve to understand that when He speaks to us to do something, those words are backed by His authority, and we can use that authority to hush the storms that would try and keep us from fulfilling that purpose.

See also Mark 4:35-41; John 5:19