Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are going to drown?” - Mark 4:38

Stress and pressure that come from the storms of life have an uncanny ability to keep us awake at night and sometimes even make us unable to function during the day. How can we rest while our “vessel” is being battered by a galeforce wind? Yet Jesus could sleep under such circumstances! When a storm arose while he was on board a boat, “Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion” (Mark 4:38). Jesus knew what it was to rest in the middle of the storm. He knew he was safe in his Father’s arms.

The pressure may not be removed, but God is able to give us such an attitude toward it that we are as content with the pressure as without it! Seem impossible? It’s not. This kind of rest is a release from mental and spiritual weariness, not a release from the work or labor of bearing the burden. We can handle the gale-force winds that assail us; we can let our little “boat” be rocked, and we can labor with intensity without wearing ourselves out. It is rest, not leisure! It is rest from self-consciousness, and it is rest from fear. Jesus asked his terrified disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith in me?” (Mark 4:40). As Jesus rested in the Father during the storm, he expected his friends to rest in him. This is the best rest.

For Further Study: Mark 4:30-41

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

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