Digging Deeper: Who are You?

After Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples asked a question that I find interesting.

“Who is this man?”

I wonder what was going through their minds. Hadn’t they already seen Him perform miracles? Hadn’t they witnessed His authority in other situations? Hadn’t they listened to His teaching and watched Him minister to people in need?

Why were they so amazed now?

I think the answer may be that there is a difference between knowing what someone can do and experiencing the full weight of who they are.

The disciples had seen Jesus work, but now they had watched Him command the wind and the water, and the storm obeyed Him. They were confronted with a power that reached far beyond anything they could fully comprehend.

They knew Jesus, but they were still discovering Him.

And isn’t that true for us?

We can spend years in church. We can read our Bibles, memorize Scripture, attend Bible studies, and talk about God’s goodness. We can tell stories of how He has worked in our lives and encourage other people to trust Him.

Yet there are moments when God reveals something about Himself in a way that makes our hearts pause.

Sometimes we discover His comfort in a season of grief. Sometimes we experience His provision when we cannot see how the bills will be paid. Sometimes we find strength to forgive someone who hurt us deeply. Sometimes, in a season when we thought we would fall apart, we discover a peace that we cannot explain.

Those experiences don’t mean we suddenly know everything about God. They deepen our understanding of the One we have been learning to trust all along.

I think about the difference between telling someone that God is a comforter and experiencing His comfort when your heart is broken. There is a difference between saying God is faithful and looking back over a difficult season, realizing that He sustained you through every single day.

We may enter a difficult season asking, “Lord, how am I going to get through this?” But after walking with Him through it, we may find ourselves asking a different question: “Lord, how could You be so faithful to me? How could You give me strength I didn’t have? How could You meet me in a place I thought I would have to face alone?”

We may not understand why every storm comes, but we can keep discovering the heart of Jesus through every season.

Prayer

Lord,

When we look back over difficult seasons, help us see not only what we endured but also how You sustained us. Remind us of the strength You supplied, the wisdom You gave, and the moments when Your peace met us in the middle of uncertainty.

May we never stop being amazed by Your love, Your power, Your mercy, and Your faithfulness. I pray that the things we learn in our own storms become a source of encouragement to someone else who is struggling.