The Disciples’ Storm
In the Gospels, we read about a storm that took place when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples. He was exhausted from his early mornings and late night ministering to people, so when he got into the boat, he promptly fell asleep. While he slept, a huge storm built and soon wreaked havoc with their boat. It must have been some storm for these seasoned fishermen to be afraid! They wake up Jesus in a panic. “Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?!”
Jesus simply looks out at the wind and the waves and the tempest, and commands it to stop. The storm instantly stops, and the seas become peaceful once again. Then Jesus turns to his disciples. Don’t miss this part; don’t miss what he says when he looks each of them in the eye. He says this, “Why were you so afraid? Do you not have faith?”
Growing Faith that is Stronger than Your Struggle
Those words are still an indictment to us today. The world becomes a chaotic storm around us, and we panic and run to Jesus. “Don’t you know what’s going on? Have you seen what’s happening?! Where are you, God?” God simply looks at us and says, “My beloved child, don’t you have any faith?”
I don’t know about you, but I want to have the faith that Jesus expects me to have. I don’t want to fall apart when the path before me gets a little rocky, when the storms start swelling around me.
Uncertainty, Unrest, and Fear
It seems like everywhere you turn right now, there is unrest, uncertainty, and fear. What do we to combat that? The best way to combat our fear and uncertainty is to double down on our faith. How can we do that? How can we grow our faith?
Well, for our church, that means doing a spiritual growth campaign that is a 40-day booster for our faith. I invite you to join us.
What Is It?
It’s a forty-day study on faith that our church is leading. There are three parts to it.
- The Sermon Series. Matt will be preaching every Sunday morning at 11:00 EST a series entitled, Growing Faith that’s Stronger than Your Struggle. You can catch those sermons on our Greater Philly Church Facebook Page. You can watch them live or watch the replay.
- Weekly Small Group Study. We will meet in our small groups during the week and work through the accompanying 40 Days of Faith Study Guide. If you are interested, you can snag a copy of the study guide from Amazon and use it to start your own group. There are QR codes inside the study guide for links to the corresponding videos for this series that are free on YouTube.
- Daily Devotional Study. For the final element our our forty days of faith, we will be working through our Faith for the Impossible 30-Day Devotional.
We all could use something positive to focus on right now. If we can do that and grow in our walk with God at the same time, then that’s a win in my book. I’m looking forward to this study to be able to do just that.
If you want to join in, use the links above to snag a devotional and a study guide, and be sure to check out our Facebook page on Sunday mornings.
If you aren’t really interested in joining us but still want the benefits of the study, I encourage you to grab a devotional and work through it by yourself at home. It will help you grow in your faith these next thirty days and take your focus off of yourself and your circumstances and put your focus back on God.
For More Encouragement
If this hits home with you, especially with the crisis in Ukraine, read my post, Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times.
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