Daily Devotional For Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Good morning Southside! I am following the One Year Chronological Bible reading suggestion and any Bible verses you see highlighted in bold (ex. John 3:16), means it is a link to that verse. All you have to do is click on the reference and it will take you to the verse online. Our daily devotional for today comes from the words of Jesus found in Mark 4:35-41.
In this passage Jesus calms a storm while He and His disciples are on the Sea of Galilee at night. Knowing some of these disciples were professional fishermen, they knew never to go out on the Sea of Galilee at night nor during the day when an approaching storm was coming. It was dangerous. Why? Well, the Sea of Galilee is 690 feet below sea level. It sits deep in the Jordan Rift that runs from the north in Galilee all the way south to Judea to the Dead Sea, which is around 1,400 below sea level.
This area had high mountains to the west and when storms came in from the Mediterranean Sea, by the time they cleared the mountain tops, and you were out on the Sea of Galilee, it was too late. This sea has had many different names throughout history: The Sea of Galilee is known today as Yam Kinneret. In Scripture, it is variously referred to as the Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1), the Sea of Chinnereth (Num. 34:11; Josh. 13:27), or Sea of Chinneroth (Josh. 12:3), and the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; John 21:1), after the main city on its western shore, which was named after Tiberius Caesar Augustus.
The sea is in reality a large freshwater lake, measuring approximately thirteen miles long by seven miles wide. The Jordan River gets its water mainly from underground springs and sometimes from snow melt from Mt. Hermon (elevation 9232 ft above sea level). To this day, the Sea of Galilee is the lowest fresh water lake on earth. It provides drinking water and food supplies such as fish to the people who live around it. Pastor & author John MacArthur writes;
“The Jordan Valley in which it is situated is part of the Great Rift Valley that runs some 4,500 miles from Syria through the Red Sea and down the east coast of the African continent to Mozambique. The steep hills and cliffs that encompass the Sea of Galilee make it vulnerable to high winds, which can cause sudden, violent storms to develop on the lake. As cooler air travels down from the northern Golan Heights, it collides with the warm air in the basin of the lake, creating turbulent conditions that are intensified as winds force their way through the ravines and canyons of the upper Jordan Valley. In 1992, one such storm generated ten–foot high waves on the lake, causing flooding and damage in the city of Tiberias (Source: John MacArthur, MacArthur’s New Testament Bible Commentary, “Mark,” pp. 228-229).
In those days on the Sea of Galilee, storms seemed to come out of nowhere. We are blessed today to have the modern technology of meteorology, but they did not. To be on the Sea of Galilee during the day when a storm came was terrifying, but to be on it at night in a storm was deadly. They were attempting to go from the Northwest tip of the sea where Capernaum was to the east side shore. The text tells us that other boats were with them in this crossing, probably to carry people following Jesus and His disciples.
Matthew, who was one of the original disciples and was there when this happened, used a word to describe how intense and severe this storm was. He uses the Greek New Testament word [σεισμός; seismos]. This is where we get our English word “seismic,” the word used to describe the intensity of shaking an earthquake causes. This word was also used to describe the horrific waves generated by a hurricane. This was no light rainfall, but they were fighting for their lives.
Jesus has had a long and emotionally draining last few days. He has taught, healed and had others, including his family attempt to seize Him thinking He is crazy for thinking He was the Messiah. He is exhausted and after everyone gets into the boat, he quickly falls asleep. Jesus had fallen asleep in the stern of the boat on a cushion. With a storm of this magnitude and intensity, with waves crashing over the walls of the boat, how in the world could Jesus sleep?
Mark’s main point here is not that Jesus calmed the storm (which is huge), but the disciples’ accusations that Jesus seemed to be unaware or uncaring or oblivious of the danger they were in due to this storm. Are we any different? When storms come into our lives, we are prone to wonder if God cares, if God is aware and if God would even dare calm our storm. How wrong we are to think or feel this way. God is away.
Jesus was with His disciples in this storm and He is with us in our storms. Each Gospel account of this story is clear: when Jesus rebuked the storm, it instantly was calm. There was no slowing down.They went from torrential winds and waves to instantaneous calm. What a contrast is given in this story. Not only did Jesus rebuke the storm, He rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith that He could and would get them through that storm. When Jesus calmed the storm, Mark indicates that His disciples were now more fearful of Jesus than the storm He calmed.
Why and how God chooses to respond to our storms, I do not have all those answers. There are testimonies people give of how God literally saved their lives, but others can give testimonies where God did not save the life or lives of people they know. We want God to calm our storms when He may have allowed them to teach us something as in our passage today. When we find ourselves in a storm pressing down on us to take matters into our own hands, will we wait on the Lord? Knowing that He is with us in that storm, is that enough for you? That requires what the disciples lacked: faith. I close with this true story:
“It was Christmas Eve, 1875, and Sankey was traveling by steamboat up the Delaware River. It was a beautiful, starlit evening and many passengers were on deck who encouraged the famous evangelist to sing. Sankey, who was leaning against one of the steamship’s great funnels gazing at the stars in silent prayer, consented, intending to sing a Christmas song, but felt compelled to sing William Bradbury’s “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.”
There was a deep stillness as his baritone floated across the quiet river that Christmas Eve. When he had finished, a man stepped from the shadows and said: “Did you ever serve in the Union Army?” “Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, “in the spring of 1860.” “Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862?” “Yes,” Mr. Sankey answered, very much surprised.
“So did I, but I was serving in the Confederate Army. When I saw you standing at your post, I raised my musket and took aim. I was standing in the shadow, completely concealed, while the full light of the moon was falling upon you. At that instant, just as a moment ago, you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing. ‘Let him sing his song to the end,’ I said to myself. ‘I can shoot him afterwards.… ’ “But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly: ‘We are Thine, do Thou befriend us. Be the Guardian of our way.’
“Those words stirred up many memories. I began to think of my childhood and my God-fearing mother. She had sung that song to me many times.… “When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim again. I thought, ‘The Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty.’ And my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side’ (Source: I. M. Anderson, “When Sankey Sang the Shepherd Song,” Moody Monthly, Volume 86, Number 6, February 1986, pp. 77, 78).”
Reflection Assignment: When you have any kind of storm in your life – physical, medical, emotional, relational, psychological or spiritual, do you wait on the Lord or do you believe that to get through that storm, you must live by this adage, “If it is to be, it’s up to me”? Or, like the disciples, do you accuse God of not caring, not being aware or abandoning you? When a storm comes, is your first response to pray, or panic? Do you commit it to the Lord, or attempt to control it? Do you get angry at God or do you fall down and adore Him?
Scripture To Meditate On: Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. (7) Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, when storms come into my life, I do not want to think You do not care nor do I want to respond as if I have no faith in You. With Job, you allowed all kinds of storms in his life for a reason. When storms come, I will trust You knowing that You have allowed this to make my character like Your character. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly