When we read the Biblical Stories in the Bible, we should ask ourselves the following questions:
Who are they?
What can they represent?
“Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’
He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!'”
Matthew 8:23-27 NIV
Who are they?
The disciples are you and I. Jesus is himself and reflects our relationship with Him.
What can they represent?
The storm is anything that comes in life and makes us stumble and causes us pain and trauma.
Jesus rebuked the storm, and everything went completely calm. Jesus is in control of it all, even the storms of life. We need to have faith and trust in the experience.
“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV
There is a time for every season of life. We don’t need to personalize the experience. It isn’t just happening to us. It isn’t because there is something about us that caused it to happen. We have something the world doesn’t have, though, Jesus! Jesus is in control of everything. We need to have faith. If He is allowing it to happen, then there is something we are meant to get out of it.
“Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.”
Ecclesiastes 3:15 NIV
Everything in life, we experience, has happened to someone else. Everything in life is happening as it should.
“And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment- wickedness was there,
in the place of justice- wickedness was there.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 NIV
There is good and bad in this life we live. That means that we will experience things that bring us pain and harm; we will also experience things that bring us happiness and joy. Our job is to hang on to God and have peace in every experience.
“I said to myself,
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”
Ecclesiastes 3:17 NIV
We never have to worry about vindicating ourselves or retaliating and getting even. Everyone will be held accountable for their actions.
“I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil- this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”
Ecclesiastes 3:10-14 NIV
