How to Stop Striving and Trust God

There’s a moment in John 6 that I’ve read many times, but this week one detail really stood out to me.

Jesus had given the disciples direction. Matthew tells us that He told them to get into the boat and go to the other side.

So off they went.

Then the wind rose. The sea became rough. What should have been a straightforward journey became hard work.

Mark tells us that Jesus saw them ‘straining at rowing’. They were doing everything they knew to do, but they weren’t getting very far.

I wonder how often we do exactly the same thing.

We sense God giving us a direction. We pray about something. We believe He’s shown us what to do. Then, without even realising it, we effectively say, ‘Thanks, Lord. I’ll take it from here.’

We start planning, pushing, working things out and trying to make it happen.

There’s nothing wrong with working hard. There’s a difference, though, between working with God and straining in our own strength.

As Jesus came walking towards them on the water, it says that He ‘would have passed them by’.

He didn’t force His way into their situation. They had to respond to Him.

Verse of the Week

‘Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.’ —John 6:21

They’d been out there for hours, straining at the oars, fighting against the wind and trying to get to the other side. Jesus gets into the boat and they’re there.

It almost sounds like something from a sci-fi film – warp speed across the Sea of Galilee!

God can accomplish in a moment what we could spend years trying to force in our own strength.

It’s possible to be heading in exactly the direction God told us to go and still end up striving because we’re trying to get there without depending on Him.

We don’t want to ask God for direction and then run off with the instructions. We need Him involved in the whole journey – in our decisions, our timing, the way we do things and the things we’re trying to make happen.

When Jesus is in the boat, we don’t have to strain at the oars as though everything depends on us. He can take us further than we could ever get in our own strength.

So where are you straining at the oars right now? What would it look like to invite Jesus right into the centre of it?

Until next week,

Have a blessed day and keep shining! 

Cheryl