Tosheng’s Weblog

Those were the words of William Cowper in his hymn “God Moves in a mysterious way”. I was reminded of this hymn, as I began to write this post on what I read in the 6^th chapter of the gospel of John, these are the verses that are pertinent:

“Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.” …

“When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.  The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.  When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”  Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” John 6:5-6; 16-21

Seek Him

From verse 1 – 15 is the story of the Lord feeding up to 5000 men, in verse 5 the Lord asks Philip, where are we to buy bread to feed all these and we are told He said this to test him, he himself knowing what he would do. Knowing that God is sovereign means that we should know that every thing we face, whether good or evil comes from His hands, so no matter what our trials are He knows what He would do, the condition may seem tough, hard and unbearable, notwithstanding all these Jesus knows what he would do, he already has a solution at hand, sadly to say many of us seek him not for that solution, we do several things apart from seeking Him, and this is the first lesson about trials, it is a test that God already has a solution for seek him.

The Clouds are for your good

Looking at verse 18, we are told the sea became rough and a strong wind was blowing, they were rowing hard against the wind, and getting nowhere fast, so much that Jesus walking on the water caught up with them. The first question is was the weather for them or against them? Was it working for their good or otherwise? The answer is it was working for their good even though it was blowing against their intended destination, for had the wind been blowing in their direction they would not have seen the miracle of Jesus walking on water, even so the trials and tests we face, are working for us, they may be delaying us in order that we may more see the hand of the Lord, many are times when our situation is rough, we begin to seek our own way out, it is only when it gets so unbearable that we then begin to trust and seek the Lord, if we were to learn this ahead and seek the Lord immediately, maybe we would not waste so much time and the good that was intended by God, we would experience it earlier, with less expenditure of energy.

All Solutions in Him

This brings me to the last part of our discussions today about trials and tests, if we look at verse 21 of chapter 6, we are told that they were pleased to take him into the boat, and then “immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.”. They were struggling to get to where they were going for a long time and could not reach it, but as soon as they allowed the Lord into the ship, all that was against them worked for them, now we are not to be unwise to think that as soon we turn to the Lord our condition would change, though sometimes it does happen like that other times it doesn’t; notwithstanding whether it does or doesn’t our attitude ought to change and your situation will.

Serving you in Christ.