“BE STILL!”

Mark 4:35-41                         (ESV)

“35 On that day, when evening had come, HE said to them, "Let us go across to the other side."

36 And leaving the crowd, they took HIM with them in the boat, just as HE was. And other boats were with HIM.

37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

38 But HE was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke HIM and said to HIM, "TEACHER , do YOU not care that we are perishing?"

39 And HE awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! “BE STILL“!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

40 HE said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no FAITH?"

41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "WHO then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey HIM?" 

As I was “scrolling” this morning, I saw a meme with the words to the chorus of a song named “Till the storm passes by”.  It seemed my mind was stuck on this theme, so I researched and discovered the “HIS”tory of ONE OF THE storms in Scripture listed in Mark 4.  As I was going to Mark 4:35-41, I passed by NUMEROUS “parables”  in Mark chapter four that were spoken to those who heard.   When asked why HE spoke in parables, JESUS replied in Mark 4:11-12 “To you has been GIVEN the secret of the kingdom of GOD, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "'they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.'”  

Not everyone who “hears” words spoken are moved by those words.  Regrettably, I was in that scenario many times, and sometimes still am.  The words “BE STILL” grabbed my attention around 2009 following the Brain Hemorrhage of 2007, mainly because I had been in a coma for seventeen days and for Psalms 46:10 Ministries.   But here JESUS is speaking to the wind, a force of nature, and it obeyed HIM without question!  Yet most of us want to understand WHY GOD is asking us to do something, or how HE is going to accomplish something, or anything else we can think of to avoid doing what HE is leading us to do.  We want to “figure out” a way to escape our predicament when GOD maybe trying to grow us through our difficulties?  

The words “BE STILL” could also be stated “LET GO AND LET GOD BE GOD”.  Although we want to think that we are Spiritually mature enough to guide ourselves through the “valley of the shadow of death, we DON’T HAVE all the answers to life’s problems.  As a matter of fact, I am finding more and more that I am a TERRIBLE captain whose life navigational skills are severely inadequate, maybe even catastrophic.  

Psalms 46:10 in the King James Version and English Standard Version says to “BE STILL”, but in the NASB version says to “CEASE STRIVING”, and know that I am GOD!  Since HE is GOD and HE is in control, we don’t have to know the outcome to every situation we face in our lives, we just need to TRUST in HIM!  The disciples wanted the storm to dissipate, but JESUS wasn’t “worried” about the storm, HE was asleep in the stern of the boat. Maybe I need to REST IN HIM more and “LET GO AND LET GOD BE GOD”?  

It was if JESUS was telling HIS disciples to don’t worry about the storms that we have no control over in the first place.  We are only on earth for a brief time and then we are called HOME.  We might be placed directly into a storm so HE can be Glorified by delivering us from that storm.  Or that storm may be HIS instrument to bring us HOME!  If the winds of the seas HAVE to obey THE CREATOR, why shouldn’t I “BE STILL” and LET GOD BE GOD???