Faith, part 5

Those who walked in the Lord’s presence had difficulty having complete faith in Him. This is hard to comprehend considering what we know about Him, but is best explained with Mark 4:37-41:

“And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He [Christ] was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they [the disciples] awoke Him and said to Him, ‘teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, ‘Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?’ And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, ‘Who can this be, that even the wind and sea obey Him?”

Just as Christ marvels at complete faith He is angered by a lack of it. The disciples spent every day by His side, and yet even they could not have complete faith in Him. Even they feared when a storm struck. Even they lacked in faith. If they cannot have complete faith how can we possibly hope to achieve it?

The disciples lacked faith in Him because they lacked an understanding. Those with the greatest faith in Christ did not come during His ministry, but afterwards. Peter, James, John, and others did not achieve complete faith in Christ until after His resurrection. Paul never met Him, and yet had the complete faith in Christ we should all hope to achieve. Having faith in Christ was more difficult for the disciples because they had yet to witness the death and the resurrection. We don’t have that problem. We are on the opposite side of the resurrection, and having faith in Christ is much easier for us.

The disciples may have had Christ by their side, but we have Him in our hearts. The Holy Spirit resides within us, and makes it so that we can feel even greater faith than the disciples. While the disciples doubted when the storm came we should be filled with the faith of Christ when we face storms in our lives. We should not doubt as they did. Our relationship with Christ is much more personal than theirs was. He does not live among us, but within us. His presence in our hearts makes it possible for Him to consume us. We should let Him, and embrace what we can gain through faith.