MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2026
2:03 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: “The
Calm After the Storm”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
8:24b-25a
Message of the verses: “And He got up and rebuked the wind and the
surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
I wrote this SD earlier and did not
save it in the right way and so I want to write it again, and I will use John
MacArthur’s commentary where I will quote from it.
“Awakened by the disciples’
desperate pleas, Jesus go up and rebuke the wind and the surging waves. His exact words according to Mark 4:39
were ‘Hush, be still.’ Instantly obeying
the voice of the Creator, the wind and the waves stopped, and it became
calm. Skeptics, determined, to deny the miraculous at all costs, have
pointed out that storms on the Sea of Galilee often stop as rapidly as they
start. But while the wind might have died down almost at once, it would have
taken much longer for the waves to subside.
When Jesus commanded the wind and waves to stop, both did so instantly,
and it became absolutely calm (both Matthew and Mark use the adjective megas
[‘great’] to describe the glass calm).
“Having calmed the storm, Jesus used
the incident to teach His shocked and astonished disciples the lesson He wanted
them to learn. As they sat in their
boats on the now perfectly still surface of the lake, He said to them, ‘Where
is your faith?’ (cf. 12:28; Matt.
6:30; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20). They had seen
Him perform countless miracles, so their lack of faith on this occasion was
distressing and inexcusable. On the
other hand, this was the first time that one of the Lord’s miracles had
directly involved them, and beyond that reality their lives were at stake. That made it far more difficult for them to
remain detached and objectively analyze the situation. Paul, in contrast, was able to remain calm throughout
the two-week-long storm that ended in shipwreck (Acts 27:14-44). But he had already faced persecution and
death many times before and been delivered by the Lord (cf. 2 Cor. 11:11-33).”
(cf. 2 Cor. 11:11-33)
“22 ¶ Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they
Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better
one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments,
with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the
Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three
times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked;
a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers,
danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in
the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
27 in toil and hardship, through many a
sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and
exposure. 28 And, apart from other
things, there is the daily, pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who
is made to fall, and I am not indignant? 30
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus,
he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas
was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 but I was let down in a basket through a
window in the wall and escaped his hands.”
“The lesson for the disciples was
clear: they were to trust the Lord even in the most severe and threatening
circumstances. They were, as Peter would
later write, to cast all their anxiety on Him, knowing that He cared for them
(1 Peter 5:7). Paul expressed his
confident trust in the Lord’s care when he wrote triumphantly, ‘For I am
convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:38-39). Summing up the
lesson Jesus wants all believers to take from this incident, David Gooding
writes,
“We live in
a universe that is lethally hostile to human life: only the miracle of creation and divine
maintenance preserves our planet and its wonderful adaptations and provisions
for the propagation of human life.
Within our earth itself wind, wave, lightning, storm, flood, drought,
avalanche, earthquake, fire, heat, cold, germ, virus, epidemic, all from time
to time threaten and destroy life.
Sooner or later one of them may destroy us. The story of the stiling of the storms is not,
of course, meant to tell us that “Christ will never allow any believer to
perish by drowning, or by any other natural disaster. Many believers have so perished. It does demonstrate that he is Lord of the
physical forces in the universe, that for him nothing happens by accident, and
that no force in all creation can destroy his plan for our eternal salvation or
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Rom.
8:38-39). (According to Luke [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans. 1987], 143)
“Sometimes the Lord will bring a
storm into believers’ lives for chastening; other times to increase their
faith. Jonah ended up in a storm because
of his disobedience, while in this incident the disciples’ obedience put them
into the storm. In both cases God was
there to deliver them.”
Spiritual Meaning for my life
today: God has brought this section
that I am studying today to help me in the storm that I find myself in at this time. I have mentioned that I had to go to the ER
two times because of high blood pressure, and this was caused because of the
death of my wife in July and the terrible motorcycle wreck my grandson had
where he lost an arm and a leg. The only
other real issue that I went through before the death of my wife was when my
son had to have surgery to put a patch in his heart and open of a valve when he
was 18 months old. Oh yes my wife had great
emotional issues that I had to deal with long hospital stays. But what I am going through now is the very
worst issues I have ever faced, and I am trying to trust the Lord to get me
through it and get the meds to get my bp down.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to guide me through what
is going on in my life so it will bring glory to His name.
9/23/2026
2:49 PM
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