Hello and welcome to the final Foundations podcast this week. This week we have been exploring the nature of provision. We started the week thinking about how we can only trust in God’s provision if we know he values us, on Tuesday we saw that God loves us to ask for his provision and on Wednesday and Thursday we thought about two of the gifts He provides; His word and His grace. Today I want to finish the week by asking the question ‘do you know who’s in your boat?’
REFLECTION:
Today’s reading is taken from Matthew 8:18-34. I will read the whole passage at the end of my reflection but today I want to focus on verses 23-27. This is a famous passage describing an incident that happens after Jesus has finished speaking. A crowd has gathered around him and he tells the disciples it’s time to cross in their boat to the other side of the lake. We join the story at verse 23.
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’
He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’
The disciples had spent a lot of time with Jesus by this point. They had heard all his teaching, they’d been watching him and observed miracles. Only two chapters ago we heard Jesus telling the disciples and the crowd listening about how they were not to worry but God valued them. And yet here the disciples find themselves, fearful and anxious, huddled together in a fishing boat. As the storm raged around them they forgot all they’d heard and all they’d seen but most importantly they forgot who was in the boat. They forget that the very person who had spoken such powerful words of comfort and truth, the very person who had healed leprosy and banished paralysis, that very person was right there, in the boat, just an arm’s reach away.
It can be easy to stand in judgement of the disciples; how could they not trust after all they’d experienced?! But I’m painfully aware of the fact that I often forget who’s in my boat. I often forget that Jesus is just an arm’s reach away.
We all know what it feels to walk into a difficult situation with someone by your side. A difficult meeting or appointment. When we walk into those situations knowing we are with someone who loves us and has our back, well, it makes a difference. It gives us courage. People’s presence can make those moments less fear inducing. It makes a difference when you know who’s in your boat.
As we wrap up this week, I don’t know what situations you are facing where you need God’s provision. Where are the places you are feeling like you’ve reached the end of what you can do? Where are the places that you need reminding that he provides because it feels really lonely right now?
I think this week God want to remind us of who is in our boat. He’s not going anywhere, he sails (to push the analogy too far!) into whatever week, month or year we are having. Sometimes, like the disciples, we forget who’s in the boat, we forget his power, we forget his authority, we forget his love. But today as we hear this story let’s take comfort that he is indeed with us, he is powerful, he does have authority and he is extravagant in His love for us.
PRAYER:
Thank you for this week and the chance to think about provision. Thank you Jesus that you are in my boat. That you are for me, that you never leave me. Amen
READING: Matthew 8:18-34
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’
Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
Another disciple said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’
But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’
He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’
When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. ‘What do you want with us, Son of God?’ they shouted. ‘Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?’
Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, ‘If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’
He said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.