HE WAS ALWAYS WITH US
They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:49-52
What a difference understanding makes to the whole process of renewing our minds! This incident (feeding the 5,000, Jesus walking on the water and calming the wind) left the disciples no nearer to knowing who He was or understanding their circumstances than before. There was a block in their experience of God that left them bewildered and hardened in their hearts.
What is needed in our present understanding of God so that our circumstances contribute to our knowledge of Him and His ways rather than adding to our confusion? The problem with our thinking is that we associate God’s presence in our lives only from the time we acknowledged Him as our Saviour. We think that this is when He began to involve Himself with us, not realising that He knew us from before the foundation of the world. He was always with us even though we did not know it.
If that is true, then He was with us (and for us) when bad things happened although we saw ourselves as useless, worthless or abandoned. The disciples had not yet reached that point in their understanding and therefore could not grasp how secure they were in Him. They had not yet entered the rest of God where they could relinquish themselves to His perfect love for them.
Jesus intended this entire set of circumstances to be a learning opportunity for them. They had experienced His intervention when they were almost swamped by the storm on their way to Gadara. They saw Him unfazed by physical danger, by confrontation with the spirits of darkness, by a hungry crowd of people and even by a huge stretch of water He had to cross without a boat but, at this point, they just didn’t get it. They were still spectators in this unfolding drama of God.
Jesus wanted to write them into His story. He wanted them to be players in this magnificent story of God but, at that moment they were still watching and listening. They had yet to enter in.