“And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” Mark 4:37-40

Here in the Gospel of Mark we read of the Peace Speaker calming both the winds of the Earth and the hearts of men with the words of his mouth. The Bible depicts ferocious gales, but then a great calm—that is until Jesus spoke again to his disciples. Instead of a reassuring, “It’s okay, boys, everyone gets scared from time to time,” it was “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?”! What would cause Jesus to respond in such a challenging way on the heels of, no doubt, one of the more traumatic moments in the disciples’ lives up to that point? It was their accusation of him when they woke him up. What accusation? “Master, carest thou not…” Can you see it? They questioned his love for them! It seems that there’s nothing much more faithless in the Lord’s eyes than to question God’s love and care for humanity.

The last few weeks we have written of how many Christians “frustrate” the grace of God and hinder the flow of God’s help into their lives by complicating God’s solution to their problems and, at times, even advocating a “Jesus plus” theology. We said that God’s grace is a mighty river, but when we try to complicate His solutions and fail to just do what He says, we try to funnel that grace through a garden hose and end up restricting what God desires to do in our lives.

We’ve also looked at a couple of reasons people frustrate God’s grace in their lives and fail to just do what He says. One was because they don’t fully trust His revealed Word to them, and the second was because often times God’s grace-filled solutions don’t sync with their personal logic. His solution of just doing what He says is too simplistic for their “Big” problems and they out-smart themselves right out of a blessing!

This week let’s look at a final reason some Christians frustrate the grace of God in their lives and fail to “just do” what He says. What is it? It was what the disciples did on that sinking ship that day—they didn’t trust God’s motives toward them.

That’s shocking to say, and I know just as shocking to hear, but it’s true, and we’ve probably all been guilty of it at one time or another in our lives. We know we shouldn’t, but there are times when we’ve been faithless and doubted whether God is really for us or not. We’ve doubted whether God was on our side individually or in a particular instance or if He’s really not just trying to punish us or teach us a lesson in all the trouble we are facing. In those moments have we forgotten the words of Jesus? Have we forgotten the Holy Ghost-inspired words of Romans 8?

In Romans 8:32 we read “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Do you think a God that has given up all that is now going to turn His back on you? Of course not! Do you think He is going to just change His mind and decide not to “like” you all of a sudden? Of course not! That’s why the rest of the chapter goes on to declare that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God!

Brothers and sisters, if there’s one thing in this life that we can count on, it is that God cares for us. If He tells us, “Do this,” then just do it! That’s our path to His greatest grace in our lives. That’s the solution to our problem guaranteed!

Friends, let’s not complicate the grace of God in our lives. Let’s just trust His voice, His logic and His love for us and do whatever He says to do.

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.