Why are you afraid? ∙∙

Why are you afraid? ∙∙

Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? – Mark 4:40

Romans 5:3-5

 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

As adults enter their middle years, it’s common to notice a decline in muscle strength, energy, and vitality. How can this decline be countered and muscles revitalized? Muscles were designed to grow stronger through use. When subjected to stress, muscle fibers undergo minor damage, then heal and rebuild, leading to increased strength. In other words, if you don’t use them, you lose them.

Regular strength training exercises are vital to retaining muscle power. Strength training becomes a way of life and a source of motivation and joy. While introducing significant changes to one’s lifestyle can be challenging, it’s feasible with dedication and persistence. One pivotal factor for success is simply believing in ourselves.

1 Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

The Father desires that we become mighty in spirit (Luke 1:80). How does the Father fortify our spirits? He introduces what can be likened to spiritual “resistance.” This resistance manifests through life’s challenges and adversities. His tools for spiritual growth encompass trials, hardships, tribulations, temptations, and periods of suffering. With the proper response, our spirits become stronger, and our faith grows. He arranges the events in our lives to demonstrate our faith and spiritual strength or lack thereof so that we may grow to maturity.

James 1:2-4

 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Cultivating a resilient spirit requires a fundamental change in our lifestyles and mindsets. It has to do with how we respond to challenges.

Instead of viewing trials as feared hurdles to be avoided, we should embrace them. Such a perspective transformation is a choice. It means actively engaging our thoughts and perceptions to see hardships as opportunities for valuable personal growth.

The Greek word translated as trial or trouble is peirasmos. Peirasmos refers to a trial or test with an end goal. A peirasmos demonstrates where we are, and when responded to appropriately, it strengthens us.

Difficulties are not meant to make us fall; they are intended to make us soar. They are not meant to defeat us; they are intended to be defeated. They are not meant to make us weaker; they are intended to make us stronger (Barclay).  

The Greek word translated as testing is dokimazo. Dokimazo means to examine and test to approve something as genuine. In the first century, when a clay pot was fired in a kiln and came through the fire unbroken, it was stamped dokimazo. It was approved.

Adversity reveals our spiritual condition. When responded to properly, they make us stronger.

Testing produces endurance. The Greek word translated as endurance is hupomone. Hupomone is “unswerving constancy” (Barclay). Hupomoneis not simply the ability to bear things; it is the ability to turn them into greatness and into glory.” Hupomone is the quality that makes a man able not simply to suffer things, but vanquish them (Barclay).

REFLECT & PRAY

Beethoven faced the onset of deafness before he crafted his most acclaimed work, the 9th Symphony. During its debut performance, after he concluded conducting, someone had to turn him around to witness the audience’s ecstatic, jubilant reaction. Facing the reality of his impending deafness, he declared, “I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will” (Beethoven).

Father my faith is defective. Thank You for putting me in situations that test and try me so that I might become mighty in spirit.

INSIGHT

“The Sea of Galilee is small; it is only thirteen miles from north to south and eight miles from east to west at its widest. The Jordan Valley makes a deep cleft in the surface of the earth, and the Sea of Galilee is part of that cleft. It is 680 feet below sea level. That gives it a climate that is warm and gracious, but it also creates dangers.”

“On the west side, there are hills with valleys and gullies, and when a cold wind comes from the west, these valleys and gullies act like gigantic funnels. The wind, as it were, becomes compressed in them and rushes down upon the lake with savage violence and with startling suddenness so that the calm of one moment can become the raging storm of the next. The storms on the Sea of Galilee combine suddenness and violence in a unique way” (Barclay).

More than once, the disciples were caught in a fierce storm at sea (Mark 4:35-41, Matthew 8:23-27). In this instance, the Lord Jesus Christ had directed them to take a boat across the Sea. Fully aware of the impending storm, the Lord Jesus Christ remained calm and even dozed off. The disciples were terrified as the tempest raged despite their past experiences with Galilean storms. Some of them, being fishermen, had faced such storms before. However, this one seemed particularly fierce and violent. They thought they were going to die. This situation, however, was designed as a trial to strengthen their faith.

Mark 4:38-41

 38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”

 39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.

 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

 41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

The disciples had faith, but their faith was lacking in depth. It was immature and defective. They had too little faith. “Faith in Messiah and fear are mutually exclusive. Therefore the disciples should not have been “timid” (NAS) or “afraid” (NIV)” (Constable).

Matthew 8:26 Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!”

The disciples had not yet come to understand Who the Lord Jesus Christ was. When children of the King come to know Him and truly believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate, eternal son of God, we have no reason to be afraid.

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© Dr. H 2023