As the storm waves of life crash into us, threatening to pull us down into the undertow of sin, Jesus comes and stands between us and the furious tides.
When storm waves crash against the beach, wise people run away. The roar and power of the waves send us running, searching for a safer place to stand. There's no security when we stand on shifting sands while storm waves collide with our bodies. Furious tides rush forward, tearing away all in their path. Why wouldn't we seek a place removed from their destructive force? Of course, we would attempt to escape from the storm waves. We would flee from their threat without a second thought.
Why, then, do we not react in the same way to the rush and roar of something more powerful than an ocean storm's crushing flood? The power of sin rules us, crushes us, and floods over us in waves of selfishness. It tears us apart: tearing us away from each other and tearing us away from God. Sin seeks to destroy us in body, soul, and mind. It sends fear flooding into our lives.
And fear will cloud reality. It will cloud our vision and obscure what is really going on. The grips of fear can paralyze us. But, as Yann Martel writes in Life of Pi:
[Fear] is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always...so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.
But "light of words," as Yan writes, will not be enough to conquer and defeat fear. We need the Light of Truth, God's word, to shine on us and enlighten our fear. Then, when we wrestle with anxieties that try to knock us down and conversations that trap us in doubt, we have safety and shelter. We have God's word, which is more powerful than our fears.
As the storm waves of life crash into us, threatening to pull us down into the undertow of sin, Jesus comes and stands between us and the furious tides. He says, "Be still," and the waves are calmed. The storm subsides. Jesus is the Lord, the One to whom all creation must bow. He is clothed with power and might. He alone has the strength to calm life and all its fears because only Jesus can save us.
As the storm waves of life crash into us, threatening to pull us down into the undertow of sin, Jesus comes and stands between us and the furious tides.
Jesus became Sin to defeat sin. There is no sin he hasn't already forgiven in the power of his resurrection. There is no fear, no anxiety he cannot calm. He promises that he will come to us, and with him, we will find rest. He brings us to his cross where all our life is drowned in a flood of grace. In the blood and water that gush from our Savior's side, we receive pardon and peace from God. The blood of Jesus is more powerful than any storm, and the water that pours out of his body drowns us so that we may be raised from death, renewed, living as new men and women through faith in Christ Jesus to the glory of God the Father.
The floods of life seek to destroy us every day, but Jesus calms the waves and silences the storm. With him, we find safety because there are no storm waves so fierce that Christ cannot calm them. God's word drowns out the storm waves and rescues us from destruction.
