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MAKING YOUR PROBLEMS WORSE

by Jeffrey Hagan  
8/10/2014 / Christian Living

Introduction:

How many of you have had a problem before that you tried to solve but all you did was make it worse? I know I have. My hand is raised. We're in good company though. Jesus went out and hand picked twelve specific people to be His disciples, and even they managed to fall into the same problem. I'm hoping that by taking a look at what they did, maybe we can learn how NOT to solve a problem. Our passage today is a familiar one: It's where the disciples find themselves in the middle of a storm when they're out at sea, and they start wondering if they're going to be able to survive it. Let's go there now, Mark 6:45-52. This passage is a familiar one, so I'm going to attempt to approach it in a way that will be fresh to you. Let's check it out. Again, that's Mark 6:45-52 (Read the passage in full).

Five Mistakes of the Disciples:

1. The first mistake the disciples made was thinking that Jesus was unaware of their problem. Mistake 1: Thinking Jesus in unaware. Picture the scene in your mind. The disciples are trying to go up against a powerful head wind and they're not doing too well. As far as they know, Jesus is still with the crowd they had left, doing whatever it was He was doing among them, unaware of what was happening to them. But in reality, that's not the case at all. Look at verses 47-48, "When evening came, the boat was in the middle of he lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them." Jesus was fully aware of their situation, and He is fully aware of yours too. Remember that fact.

A pastor I know of once got a letter from a girl who had been through a terrible tragedy in her family. Someone in her family had committed suicide. A portion of the letter reads, "To get to the point (whatever it is) I am so lonely, I'm getting to the point where I'm almost panicky with depression. I feel alone, alone, alone. And grief is about the only emotion I possess apart from an unexplainable anger. I feel hateful and hated. Last night my mother told me if she had it to do over again, she wouldn't have any kids. She was serious. And I don't blame her. I wish she hadn't too."

This pastor responded by telling her how the psalmist said that when your parents kick you out, the Lord takes you in. He told her that even if she didn't feel it, and even if she didn't know it, Jesus was aware of everything that she was going through. And the same is true for you and me also.

2. The second mistake made by the disciples was that they actually thought their problems were worse than they really were. Mistake 2: Thinking your problems are worse than they are. The gospel of Mark said it was the fourth watch, or between 3:00 to 6:00 a.m., before Jesus made His way into the sea to do anything about the problem. In other words, Jesus sat on the mountain, watched the storm and saw the disciples struggling in it, and He didn't do anything about it for a while. In fact, verse 48 tells us, "He was about to pass them by." Jesus was well aware of the problem and He knew it wasn't as bad as the disciples thought it was. He watched them and knew they were having difficulty; He knew they had to row hard. But that was good for them. He knew full well they were not going to sink.

I'm sure you've heard stories along the lines of the one where a man was walking on the railroad tracks on a very dark night and came across a narrow spot that ended up going across a bridge. Well, as he was on the bridge he hears a train coming at a fast rate and he has nowhere to go. So the guy grabs the side of the bridge and holds onto the edge and hangs himself by it as the train passes over him. When the train finally makes its way past him, the man couldn't gather enough strength to pull himself up back onto the bridge. So he knew he was going to have to just hang there. If he couldn't, he was afraid he would fall down into the cavern full of rocks thousands of feet below. That morning, as soon as it was light enough to see, the man realized he was hanging only six inches from the ground...

We're a lot like that ourselves. Jesus said if you have just a little bit of faith you can move mountains. Now that's hard! But let me tell you all something: It's much easier to create mountains, and we're good at it. I build mountains all of the time. If I get a stomachache, I just know they're going to have to operate; If I get a headache, it's got to be some kind of tumor; if my hand or legs start twitching, Parkinson's is on the way; if my arms go numb, I'm on my way to paralysis. We all do that to some degree or another with some issue. Someone once said, "Fear knocked, faith answered, and nobody was there." That's what we should strive for.

3. The third mistake the disciples made was that they confused the solution with the problem. Mistake 3: Confusing the solution with the problem. When they first saw Jesus walking on the water they thought he was a ghost and they freaked out. They confused their solution with a new problem. We do this too. Well, maybe not a ghost specifically, but let me explain.

One of the most important principles any Christ-follower can ever learn is the principle of praise: 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says," Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." That means no matter what happens to you, give God praise, trust Him through it. How? You can do it because He is involved in every single circumstance of your life.

Brother Lawrence was a Catholic layman from a Carmelite Monastary in France back in the 17th Century. He is respected among Christians for the deep intimacy he developed with God. A book of his writings were compiled after his death and it has become a classic Christian book. It's title is, "The Practice of the Presence of God." As Christians we need to follow that advice, we need to practice the presence of God.

If you want to make your problems worse, see every problem as an accident or even a punishment. If you want to make your problems better, try to see that God has a plan and purpose in the midst of the problem. Learn to listen to God carefully and in your "storms" you'll be able to hear Christ's words, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid" (Mark 6:50).

4. Fourth, the disciples made their problem worse by failing to recognize that Jesus had the power and the willingness to still the storm. Mistake 4: Not recognizing Jesus' power and willingness to act. I don't know about you, but I am glad Jesus controls the winds, be they literal, financial, physical or spiritual.

I think one of the reasons our problems get so overwhelming and beyond our control is that we insist on staying alone in a leaky boat while we try and patch up the holes with band aids and chewed up gum. Our band aids usually come in the form of "If I's:"

-If I only made $500 more a month
-If I only had a nicer home
-If I only had better clothes
-If I could just get married
-If I were only single
-If I only would have married someone else
-If I only had a new car
-If I'd only win the lottery

We tell ourselves that if all of our "If I's" would only come true, then everything would be all right. But it never is and never could be, because they're not the solution to our real problem. Our real problem is that Christ isn't in our boat to stop those stormy gusts of wind. We haven't asked Him to come alongside us and help us. Or, we have for His advise, but we're unwilling to accept what He says. We're still stubbornly convinced that we can handle our overwhelmed boat on our own. But we can't, so the wind keeps blowing harder and harder.

5. Fifth and last, the disciples made their problems worse simply because they refused to let past victories deal with "present panic circumstances." Mistake 5: Forgetting to apply past victories to current problems. When we look at the end of the story we see that after Jesus climbed into the boat, the wind came to a stop. The disciples "were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened" (Mark 6:51-52).

Do you get the picture? The disciples had just witnessed Jesus feed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus kept breaking the bread apart and passing it out until everyone had their fill and twelve basket fulls were left over. That's freakin' incredible! And later that same day the disciples were so scared about the storm that they didn't even think about Jesus coming to their rescue if they really needed it or would just ask for it. This, my friends, is a classic example of a very short memory. Sadly, we relate to this all to well, don't we? Our hearts harden too when we forget about past victories over past circumstances.

Think back to Joshua 4 if you can. God told the people of Israel to take twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan River, and to take twelve stones from the side of the river's bank, and put them in the middle of the river as an altar. They did this so when their children would ask, "What do
those stones mean?" they could answer, "It reminds us of the time when God dried up this river bed so His people could safely walk through it." We should be doing this with our lives. Not literally building altars with stones, but remembering how God has brought us through past struggles when we have current problems. That's what we should be doing rather than following the disciples' example (at least in this case) of failing to allow past victories to inform present panic situations.

Conclusion:

Life is like an ocean, and you and I are the sailors. Sometimes there are storms; sometimes there are leaky boats; sometimes there seems to be no way out. The appropriate prayer for us sailors is a simple one, "Oh Lord, Your sea is so great, and my boat is so small. I need you." That's enough, let God do the rest.

I want you to do me a favor and think about what the "If I's" are in your life. Are you willing to toss those "If I's" out and ask Jesus to come along beside you instead?

Remember, Jesus is in the business of doing, "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). So don't be afraid to trust Him. In fact, be afraid NOT to trust Him!

(c) Jeff Hagan. All rights reserved.
Email: [email protected].

Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical

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