Overcoming your fears

DAY 1 - Who is the Lord of storms of life? In John 6:15-21, we saw that Jesus' disciples were in a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. Then a strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. Yes, we saw that Jesus was walking on the water in the midst of a storm. Jesus showed that He is Lord over the natural forces, including storms. But beyond the physical storms, there are life storms. Jesus is Lord over both physical storms and life storms. The storms of life come in two different forms: a. Storms of correction. Storms of life come when we are being corrected. These are all of the consequences of sin. Just like a father disciplines the son, God the Father disciplines us. A loving father is a father that corrects and rebukes his son. Our heavenly Father is a father that corrects and rebukes the sins of his sons. b. Storms of perfection. Storms of life also come when we are being perfected. God wants us to be perfect and blameless, in fact, the term that is used is to be holy and godly (i.e., becoming like God). God uses storms of life to teach us, to make us grow in Him and to make us more like Him one step at a time. In John 6:15-21, we saw that Jesus' disciples faced both physical storm and life storm. The life storm came when they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. They recognized that that Jesus was approaching the boat, but they could not believe that He could walk on water, therefore, they thought that they must be seeing a ghost, so they were terrified (Mt 14:22-33; Mk 6:47-51). The disciples faced the storms of perfection. Jesus was teaching them to believe and trust in Jesus for He is Lord. Tomorrow we will analyze how we feel when we are walking through the storms of life.

DAY 2 - How do you feel when you are walking through the storms of life? How do you feel when you are walking through the storms of life? Let us look at how Jesus' disciples felt in John 6:15-21. a. The disciples feel like they were separated from their Lord. * Verse 15, "Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself." Jesus was by himself in the mountain. From the other gospels, we learn that Jesus was praying during that time. Now, where are the disciples? They set off across the lake by boat to Capernaum without Jesus. * Verse 17 "By now, it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them." In fact in Mt 14:22-33 and Mk 6:47-51, we learn that they were already in the middle of the lake all by themselves without Jesus. Yes, the disciples feel like they were ALONE, they feel like they were not with their God. They did not know where He was, when they needed Him to calm down the storm. This makes facing the storms of life difficult. Is this how we feel also as we are facing the storms of life? Many times we feel lonely and we feel like we are all alone. The most common questions seem to be, "Where are you Lord, when I need You?" We truly feel like He is not there. b. Jesus made the disciples got into the boat and went on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed himself to pray in the mountain. This happened right after Jesus fed the five thousand. Then, when they set off to sail, a huge storm came and blew the ship uncontrollably. The disciples must have been confused. They did not know nor understand Jesus' plan. There are times when we understand God's plan as we are going through storms of life, then there are times when we do not understand God's plan. It seems much harder to go through storms of life when we do not know God's plan. The wish seems to just be, "If I just understand His plan ..." Today we just analyze how it feels like to go through the storms of life, tomorrow we will learn about what God is doing when we are walking through the storms of life.

DAY 3 - What God is doing when we are walking through the storms of life What is God doing when we are walking through the storms of life? First, God has a plan for us. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28). What is God's GOOD plan? How come sometimes it feels like his plan is painful? Do you remember what is the purpose of the storms of life from the discussion on the first day? The purpose of them is for "correction and perfection." Yes, God meant these storms to transform us to be perfect and blameless. He wants us to be living bibles and gives good testimony as children of God. TRANSFORMING us is God's good plan. The process of transformation can not be short-circuited. Let us look at this illustration. There is a caterpillar that is just about to become a butterfly. It was wiggling and trying to get out from its caterpillar body. The shell has been broken and the head is popping up. Then, a little child that has been watching the whole process feels sorry for the hard effort that the caterpillar is going through. So, this little boy helps the caterpillar by helping it to open up his shell. Well, you can guess what happened next. The caterpillar is only half way through its transformation process of becoming a beautiful butterfly and the caterpillar can never become a butterfly. It was still half a caterpillar and half a butterfly. The process of transformation can not be short-circuited. Just like our transformation process can not be short-circuited. Even though the storms of life seems hard, but it actually works to transform us into a beautiful person that God wants us to be. This process must take its course and its time. It can not be short-circuited. As children of God we should be thankful if God rebukes and disciplines us, because that means that our heavenly Father loves us. In addition, as children of God we should be thankful is God is giving us tests upon tests, because the result of those tests is to perfect us. What is natural reaction as we are going through storms of life? It is full of peace or is it full of fear. God said, "It is I, do not be afraid." That's exactly what God said to his disciples on the boat in the midst of the storm. "Do not be afraid, for I am with you always."

DAY 4 - God is praying for us as we are walking through the storms of life What is God doing when we are walking through the storms of life? * Yesterday, we studied that God has a good plan for us * Today we are going to study that "God is praying for us" as we are walking through the storms of life In Hebrew 7:25, "Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come go God through him, because he always lives to INTERCEDE for them." In this verse, it is stated that Jesus intercedes for us. Intercede means to ask and seek on somebody else's behalf. Jesus is praying for us continually. Wow, what a lesson! In fact, let us go back to our passage for this week from John 6:15-21. Where was Jesus when the disciples needed him? Jesus was praying in the mountain for those disciples. He was actually praying, watching and seeing his disciples. He is always there for them. In John 17 we can see that Jesus prays for His disciples, then Jesus prays for all believers. Yes, Jesus is called the High Priest. The job of a high priest is to be a mediator between sinful man and the holy God. Jesus as a High Priest is doing exactly that. He is praying for us. Now, when we are going through storms of life, we usually ask our fellow brothers to pray for us. Now, how will you feel if you know that not only your fellow brothers that pray for you, but Jesus himself pray for you. Then, what should you do if you realize that Jesus himself prays for you? This is such a DIVINE revelation. Did you know that Jesus prays for us. Many times, we did not realize the meaning of Jesus as our MEDIATOR, Jesus as the HIGH PRIEST and Jesus INTERCEDING for us. It truly and literally means that Jesus is praying for us continuously and without ceasing. What more can we ask for! That's how loving our God is. Should we be afraid, if we know that our Lord and Savior is watching, seeing and praying for us as we are going through the storms of life? Do you think God will not answer Jesus' prayers? We should have a CONFIDENCE beyond anything if we realize that our own God prays for us. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." I John 4:18. In fact, in the bible we are told to "not be afraid" 365 times.

DAY 5 - God is in the midst of our storms of life What is God doing when we are walking through the storms of life? * God has a good plan for us * God is praying for us * God is in the midst of our storms of life Yesterday, we learn that God is watching, seeing and praying for us as we are going through our storms of life. But more than that, God is actually in the midst of these storms. Let us look at John 6:15-21 again, Jesus walked on the water and came to the boat. He came in the midst of the storm. How come we feel like God is not there when we are going through troubled times? Actually we will feel His presence at the time of dependence. Only after we are at the end of our rope and we shout to the Lord for his help, then we will feel his presence. It is not that he is there only if we shout for him, all along he has been busy making plans for us, watching and praying for us. It is us that do not feel his presence until we actually come to the point when we long for his presence and when we come to the point of utter dependence on him. Now, some people may ask say that this is beautiful theory, but tell me "Where is God when the shooting of the Wedgewood Baptist Church happened?" In addition, "What is God's good plan through this terrible event?" Let us put this theory into practice. That event definitely is a HUGE storm, and what can we say about it?

Disclaimer
This material is a summary of the message that was preached by Pastor
Jack Graham at Prestonwood Baptist Church.  The writer of this EBS
(Electronic Bible Study) made some changes and added some personal notes
that is necessary to customize this material into an electronic media, a
daily reading material and to better fit the audience.  The Prestonwood
Baptist Church is not affiliated in anyway with the Indonesian Christian
Fellowship of Fort Worth.