A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

Getting to his feet, he told the wind, "Silence!" and the waves, "Quiet down!" They did it. The lake became smooth as glass.

Then he said to his disciples, "Why can't you trust me?"

—Luke 8:23-25 (The Message)

I love coffee and I love coffee mugs. The one in the picture is may latest find. The mornings I feel myself struggling to trust God are the ones I reach for this mug as a reminder that it's all about trusting God.

So let’s talk about trust. Trusting God is our greatest challenge in the life. I believe it’s something you and I will grapple with on a daily basis for the rest of our lives. We begin to trust God in one area of our life only to find ourselves facing new challenges or an entirely different area of our life that we’ve yet to completely place our trust in God. It’s just the way it works. It’s our training ground. It’s how God works.

Trust isn’t easy though, especially when we’re dealing with the unknown. But that’s the whole definition of trust, isn’t it? Accepting the truth of something without evidence? (Heb. 11:1) Isn’t it about trusting God so completely that we know that we know that we know that whatever we are facing or will face, God is right there in the middle of it working for our good because we love Him and are called according to His purpose? (Rom. 8:28)

The amazing part of all this is Jesus is asking us to trust the truth. Want your mind blown away?

Jesus is Truth. (John 14:6) He is the ultimate and unchanging Truth, the most reliable Truth we have in our lives. We live in a world that loosely defines truth as whatever works in the current moment. The world’s truth is always changing and is completely unreliable. What may be true for one person isn’t true at all for another. What was true ten years ago, or even last year, for that matter, isn’t true today.

But Jesus is true for everyone, all the time. No matter what, we can trust Him for anything and everything in our lives and until we begin holding onto this, we will continue to be thrashed around by the storms of life.

What I love about this piece of Scripture is the clear example of Jesus in action. The rocking boat, the raging water, the rain and the wind are all the trials, challenges, struggles, bad news and set backs we will ever face in this life.

The disciples calling out to Jesus is exactly what we’re supposed to do in those storms. And just like then, Jesus is right here now to calm the waters, comfort us, and then challenge our faith, “Do you trust me? Can you trust Me more?”

This is His gentle rebuke when the boat rocks and we cry for help—His reminder that He’s always been right there. So what does He want us to learn?

Jesus wants us to know without out a doubt that He is the one in control. He wants us to stand boldly in that boat as the storms are about to hit and affirm that our Jesus is bigger than anything we will face. He is the one in control, and He wants us to trust His Truth above all else—trust Him above all else.

Then when the raging storms of life hit—and even the little ones—we can be the ones sitting calmly in the boat of our lives knowing that we have nothing to fear. 

Praying and believing,
Dineen