Tuesday, November 26th, 2024
I have moved on to the book of Mark in my daily reading. There are tons of good parables and lots of scriptures that I find myself reading again and again seeking God for additional understanding. One of these scriptures is Mark 6:51-52:
51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. 52 For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.
In this passage of scripture, the disciples were in a boat by themselves crossing over to the other side of the sea. The wind started to pick up and the disciples were having a hard time rowing. This is when they saw someone walking on the water towards them and they became afraid. Jesus then tells them not to be afraid and He gets into the boat with them.
I love how verse 51 says that as soon as He walked into the boat the wind ceased. He didn’t command it to stop or stir up some wind-stopping prayer. He has so much wisdom and power oozing in and out of Him that it just stopped. He knew exactly what the disciples needed before they even asked and the power within Him responded accordingly. Think about those times when we don’t think we hear from the Lord. Does that mean His power and wisdom are not working? This scripture puts that argument in its rightful place!
The other piece I want to look at is verse 52. In my Bible, I have to turn the page to go from verse 51 to 52. As I was reading the last verse, I actually had to flip back in my Bible and look again to see what story I was reading. I thought I was reading about Jesus walking on the water, but then I was reading about the miracle of the loaves. Nothing in the Bible is on accident, so I started pondering. The story right before Jesus’ walking on the water was when Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish. Imagine watching that take place. Five thousand men were fed on five loaves and two fish and there were still 12 baskets of food left over. Immediately after this is when the disciples got into the boat.
But something kept them from fully grasping the magnitude of what Jesus just did. The very next opportunity they had to exercise their faith the Bible says they cried out and were troubled. And then they went through the whole process of being amazed and marveled again like they had never seen Jesus do anything miraculous.
Final Thoughts…
So what’s the faith multiplication rule? When we see God do something amazing in our lives it should exponentially stir up our faith for the next faith-testing opportunity that comes along. Then, when we see that next expression of God’s faithfulness our faith will grow even more. After more and more of this multiplication our spirit man says, “God there is nothing you cannot do!” That’s what I want. I probably would have responded just about like the disciples did. A “Wow, Jesus” followed by a “Where are You Jesus?” followed by an “Oh, there you are Jesus” and on and on. I want to get to the place where I remember all the times I experienced God’s wonder-working power so that I have even more faith for the next challenge I encounter. That’s the faith multiplication rule!