Faith the Facts
“Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased.”
Mark 6:48–51 (NKJV)
Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him across the lake. They obeyed, but halfway through their trip, a storm rose up and pinned them in place. They rowed with all their might, expending every ounce of effort, and still got nowhere. Stuck in the middle, they were exhausted, frustrated, and spiritually vulnerable.
Jesus, meanwhile, was praying on the mountain, but He saw them straining. He knew what they were facing. And He chose that moment, in the middle of their fear, to walk out to them on the water. His miracle was not only about showing power over nature, but about showing His presence in their storm.
The disciples’ reaction? Panic. Instead of recognizing Him, they assumed the worst: “It’s a ghost!” Fatigue and fear had warped their interpretation of reality. How quickly we do the same when stuck in the middle between where we’ve been and where we hope to go. The job search that drags on. The relationship that doesn’t heal. The bills that never seem to diminish. We strain, but we stay stuck. And in that middle space, fear can twist our vision, convincing us God is absent when He is actually closer than ever.
Here’s the encouragement: faith the facts. Before letting fear dictate your response, interrogate your assumptions. Is this really the end? Has God really abandoned me? Or could this be the very place He is showing His strength?
The fact is, He is always with you. The fact is, He has already carried you through storms before. The fact is, nothing is impossible for Him.
So when the middle feels endless, faith the facts. Jesus still comes walking across the waves. And when He climbs into your boat, the wind ceases.
A Happy Heart
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
Your strength does not come from a restored life. Your strength does not come from praise-filled rejoicing. Your strength comes from the Lord, and only in the Lord can you find joy. You’re going to need this truth because antagonism toward you will never stop.
The threats will persist. Life will keep balancing you with a diet of joy and sorrow. But the joy of the Lord is where you’ll find strength.
Nehemiah is saying: You don’t have joy because you rebuilt walls. You don’t have joy because you are attempting to rebuild lives. You have joy because the Lord has made you a fortress to ensure your safety. That safety is not in the walls. Your safety is in your God.
Jerusalem’s walls were thought to be impenetrable when they were constructed, and then the Babylonians laid them in ruins. Now, the difference between the ruins of the walls that caused your exile and the restoration and rebuilding of the walls that signal your repentance is that this time, what secures your space is not how strong your walls are, but how mighty your God is.
And even if the walls are to be attacked again, your God is stronger in battle than all your enemies. So the lesson is simple. Nehemiah says, celebrate the day. Participate in joy and feasting. Resist any temptation to be gripped by regret and mourning. But only if you have learned to find your delight in your relationship with the Lord. Because your power, your force, your might, your resilience, your stamina, your endurance, and your fortitude come from the delight you have in the Lord.
Unbound
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4 (NIV)
You can celebrate God every day, all day, and it’ll look like you are at a festive party making a lot of noise. Because while you can know everything is not all right with life, you know everything is right with God.
Read this again in another translation: “Most of all, friends, always, always rejoice in the Lord.” Paul comes behind it with double emphasis. What is abundantly clear in Paul’s instruction is that he’s not offering this as a suggestion. He’s not giving this out as a consideration. The way it is written, it is a command.
But why does God sometimes have to issue us commands even though He’s given to us free will? Here’s why: sometimes He takes your choice and tells you what He wants. Why? Because if He doesn’t make it a command, you would never choose it.
Most of us would not readily make the choice every day to respond to all life’s experiences with joy. But because God knows He’s working it for your good, He commands you to rejoice because you don’t even know you should say thank you, let alone rejoice! He makes it a command, which makes living with this kind of joy not always a choice, but an obedient response.
You are responding to God’s command when you rejoice always. You are responding to what pleases God with regard to your actions and reactions in life. You are responding to His presence in all the varied seasons of your life. You are responding to how compassionately He has received you, how intentionally He loves you, how surgically He corrects you, how responsibly He rescues you, how repetitively He forgives you, how completely He restores you, how consistently He blesses you, how providentially He leads you.
Your joy is a result of the feeling that you have the freedom to respond to God’s command in your life.
Caught in a Snare
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”
The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”
Daniel 6:10-12 (NIV)
Life is full of traps, isn’t it?
This text teaches us that the trap laid for us in life can often be associated with our faithfulness to God, with attempting to live our lives in faith and joy according to the Scriptures, and with making God our highest priority in life.
Attempting to live like this can cause the enemy to create traps in an attempt to lessen the sovereignty and the undisputed power of your God.
You can’t avoid all of life’s traps. You can go through this life saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, anointed, baptized…and traps will still ensnare you.
So the question becomes, how do you deal with them? I think Daniel teaches us that he trusted prayer to keep him from absorbing everything he was exposed to. He could not stop what he was exposed to, but he did not have to absorb what he was exposed to. What repelled it was the discipline of prayer.
Prayer, for Daniel, was not just a chance to talk to God, but a gift to sanctify his life from all that was trying to invade it.
Friend, you can’t avoid all the traps that will be laid for you in life, but whatever else you apply as a coping mechanism and a strategy for survival, let your prayer—and the same belief in prayer that makes you a target—keep you layered in protection, covered in eternal security, hedged in from all life’s threats.
Let prayer sift all that you encounter and purge you of counterthoughts.
Let prayer help you navigate life with strength, with trust, and with hope.
Traps
“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Matthew 22:19-22 (NIV)
In the temple that day, amid tension between opposing factions, those who were against Jesus decided to collaborate. You know you’re in trouble when people who hate each other work together to come after you. They decide to collaborate to make sure Jesus is the target of the takedown, with the goal to take Him out. Herodians, Pharisees, and religious leaders are falling fast into the trap of their own anxiety and their need to redirect the people’s attention and affections back toward them.
There’s a plot unfolding—an attempt to trap Jesus. The trap is laid in the form of an innocent, innocuous question regarding payment of taxes to Caesar. The question is straightforward: “Jesus, is it lawful to pay Caesar taxes?” The question, of course, is designed to trap Jesus because the answer may appear to be simple, but it is very dangerous.
If Jesus answers yes, He risks alienating the Jewish people because they resented Roman rule. They saw paying taxes as a betrayal of faith. But if He answers no, He could be accused of inciting rebellion against Imperial Rome, which would mean that Rome would see Him as a political threat, which would justify Him being arrested, perhaps even killed. It’s a crafty trap.
So here’s Jesus’s answer: “Render to Caesar what belongs to him, but give to God what belongs to God.” Jesus does something here that is so spiritually profound. Jesus’s answer reveals dual citizenship for the child of God. It really is a revelation that the child of God is in this world but not of this world. Christians are dual card-carrying members, one of the earthly realm and one of a heavenly realm. We are not separate from the society we traffic in, but in salvation we carry a much more important citizenship because we have been blessed to have been born from above. We call it the kingdom of God, and the Bible says, the kingdom dwells within us.
It’s not only the promise of heaven when you die, but when you anchor your faith in Jesus, it’s the promise that heaven can be brought to your life while you live. So Jesus avoids the trap by revealing that there is a separation of realms, that there is in fact an earthly authority, and there is a divine authority. Jesus shows us that honor is called for in both realms, but greater priority is placed on the divine realm because that is where a relationship with Jesus is nurtured.
