Man's extremity is God's opportunity. In the fierce gale that tossed their boat about like an empty cockleshell the disciples gave themselves up for lost. All their skill at weathering the storm was at an end. Every moment they feared their little craft would founder and sink with all on board. In their extremity they cried out to the Lord, "Save us!" This was right in them. But when they added in their fright, "We perish," this betrayed their groundless fear, their woeful weakness of faith. How could they perish as long as the almighty Lord and Savior was with them in the boat? The Lord therefore chides them for their sinful weakness; but He graciously hears their cry for help and, arising, stills the raging storm with His omnipotent word.

Can we wonder that His disciples marvel at His great power and are mightily strengthened in their faith in Him? But has not the Lord ever thus revealed His majesty and power during the nineteen centuries that the ship of His church is sailing the storm-tossed waves on its voyage to the heavenly port? What fierce storms of persecution beat against the Christian Church under the bloody persecutions of the first centuries! What soul-destroying errors assailed the church under Arius, who denied the Godhead of Christ; under Pelagius, who blasphemed the all-sufficiency of Christ's saving grace! Think of the persecution which the church had to suffer, of the false doctrines with which it was corrupted in the Middle Ages, under the popes! Think of the schisms, the heresies, that rend the church in our day!

How could the church have weathered all these terrible tempests if Christ Himself were not at the helm of His ship, guiding and protecting it and finally bringing it safely to land? Therefore let us continue to pray for His Zion; but let us never despair of the safety and final victory of His battling, storm-beaten church.

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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