Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Would you turn with me please to the Gospel of John? Life without Christ is like a car running on two cylinders. And when the power comes into that engine, if you wish, you find your life beginning to run on four cylinders. Are there four cylinders in a car? Good. Otherwise this illustration wouldn't really go. But you get my drift. It's almost as if you come out of the experience of finding Christ and say, "I've just been at half-baked all my life and now I'm fully baked," if you wish.

But there is an energy that comes into our lives. It is physical, emotional, certainly spiritual, psychologically, everything. There is an energy that you just didn't have before. Even in our performance, even in our mothering, even in our being, even in our being the woman that we are, there is something, an element in our whole life experience that wasn't there before.

I remember at college I was always number 11. There were always 10 girls chosen for everything: 10 for the team, the tennis team, and 10 for the prefects or the head principal people in the class, class presidents—that's the word that you use. We use prefect. And I was always number 11. I never quite made that top 10. When I became a Christian, I started not only to make the top 10 but get chosen for number one. And I didn't realize that until I looked back after a year or so and thought this is really different because Christ had enhanced everything. Which of course makes sense, doesn't it?

Life with God is one thing, life without—if God himself in all his fullness comes into your life, shouldn't he make you a better teacher? Shouldn't he make you a better friend? Shouldn't he make you a better prefect? Shouldn't he make you a better everything? Yes, of course. But as we look at receiving the life of Christ and the change that he makes, we're going to look at one incident in the life of Peter because we're taking him because he above all of the gospel snapshots in this album shows us the change. We learn more about Peter; there are more snapshots of Peter than any of the other 12 apostles in this photo album of gospel that we have.

We see him changed in all sorts of ways. We see him changed in his speaking. He was always putting his foot in his mouth. Well, he does a couple of times in the Acts of the Apostles, but he does many times in the Gospels and that's progress. Remember change takes time. "Thou art Simon, but thou wilt be Peter," but you won't be Peter overnight. And of course for Peter it took Pentecost. For all of us it's going to take Pentecost. It's going to take the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives to change us from our Simon-ness into our Peter-ness.

And here in this incident of the walking on the water, we're going to see Peter changing. We're going to see him coming from doubt to faith. Now he doesn't get in the top 10. He gets 11 marks. And it's much later in his life you see him getting the top marks for what he does. But we're going to see a change from doubt to faith. And that's a place all of us need to change. Trusting. I find obedience a lot easier than trusting because obedience is easy, you just do as you're told. Anyone can do what they're told if you put your mind to it.

So obedience for me is very simple. This is what God says, so this is what I need to do. It's a to-do list. Obedience is a to-do list. Every time you open the Bible and see something God says he wants you to do, then your response is obedience, you just do it. Being brought up in England, I thank God for my heritage. I was taught to respect authority and do what authority told me to do. Whether authority was the teacher, and the teacher was always right—my parents never ever took my side against the teacher because they too, even though they suspected the teacher might not even be right, was the authority and I had to respect the authority as a junior or as a minor and do what I was told to do.

And so when I became a Christian, it was easy. He's the authority, he tells me what to do, he gives me a to-do list in the Bible, I do it. But trusting is hard for me. I have struggled all my life with being able to trust. And when I see Peter in this incident showing me both trust and doubt, then I realize this is a story that we can take the principles and apply them to our lives and particularly to this aspect of them. Now remember, Christ came to make life happen to the full. He called individuals. John the Baptist pointed Andrew and John in Jesus' direction and they followed him. Philip was called directly by Jesus, if you remember. Peter came through a family member. Nathanael came through a friend.

And even though Jesus died for the whole world, the whole world is made up of individuals and Christianity is essentially a personal individual response to what God did for the whole world. Then Christ began to change Peter. He began to change him. And so he has to allow a test. "This is a test, this is only a test," says Jesus as the storm happens. But if he didn't allow the test, we would never know or have the opportunity to practice trust. There's a wonderful hymn, those of you that are as old as me will remember that song. "I've had many tears and sorrows, I've had questions for tomorrow, there have been times I didn't know right from wrong, but in every situation God gave blessed consolation that my trials only came to make me strong."

"Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus, I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon his word. I've been to lots of places, I've seen a lot of faces, there have been times I felt so all alone, but in my lonely hours, yes those precious lonely hours Jesus let me know that I was his own. So I thank God for the mountains, and I thank God for the valleys, and I thank him for the storms he's brought me through. For if I never had a problem, I'd never know that he could solve it. I'd never know what faith in God can do." Now that's awfully obvious, but I want to state the obvious. If we never have a problem, we'd never know that he can solve it.

So guess what? That's why he lets the storms come. He is quite able to stop the storm, to still the storm. In fact, in other places in the gospel album he does just that. He gets up out of the boat and he says, "Peace, be still," and the storm stops because he is the master of the storm. Remember in John chapter one, without him was not anything made that was made. He made the weather. He made the universes. He made the weather patterns. He makes it all, he controls it all. By him all things consist or stick together, Hebrews tells us. And so he allows the storms because he knows if we never had a problem, we'd never know that he could solve it. We'd never know what faith in Christ can do.

And so what happened was a storm came into the lives of the disciples. All the disciples were part of this experience. Three of them write about it. Now they all write from their perspective. Some of them tell us things that others do not tell us. All of them tell us some of the things. For example, all of them tell us that this incident followed the feeding of the 5,000. It followed in the next incident after the feeding of the 5,000 was this incident of Jesus walking on the water. Matthew however gives us little insight. He says they had gone a considerable distance from land when this storm blew up. And Galilee is absolutely legend for this. Storms just blow up just like that.

John says it was dark and they were three miles out. Look, it says, "When evening came his disciples went down to the lake, they got into a boat and they set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, Jesus had not yet joined them. Strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they'd rowed three or three and a half miles..." Now he gives us a little bit more incident. Some of them said he'd just gone a long way from land, others say they were in the middle of the lake. And John says it was three and a half. He pinpoints it. He knows. Perhaps it was exactly halfway across the lake. It was certainly in the middle of the lake when this happened.

And so we learn it was dark, it was three and a half miles out. And then Mark gives us a little photo from his perspective. Jesus saw them straining at the oars and in big trouble. So from all these little snapshots of the same storm in the gospel album, we get the big picture. They didn't want to get in the boat because they could see the mother of all storms was on the way and they were fishermen, they knew the weather. Jesus compelled them to get in the boat, one of the accounts tells us. In other words, he said, "Get in that boat!" So apparently they were giving him a hard time, they didn't want to get in the boat.

And then he goes up a mountain to pray because remember he's just heard John the Baptist has been killed and he needs to get away alone. That's where he was going before he was interrupted by the multitude. And the disciples reluctantly get in the boat and start rowing as fast as they can to get over the lake before that dark sky overshadows them and they're in big trouble. So Jesus is still on land. Jesus is still on land. The interesting thing about that is first of all he sees them. Now remember, somebody's told us it's pitch black. Somebody else has told us it's absolutely drenching rain. It's just emptying out. Many of them have told us the waves are so high they are going to overturn the boat.

So you've got Jesus on shore three and a half miles away in the dark, pitch black, drenching rain, but he sees them straining at the oars from where he is. And I love that little touch that you learn as you put all those pieces together. That he sees us in the dark. He sees us in the storm. Even in his humanity he saw them. And certainly now in his resurrection power and glory, he sees us. You can never be anywhere that's too dark, you can never be anywhere that's too wet, you can never be in any storm of life where he does not see you straining at the oars.

And the neat thing about this whole story as we see Peter and the walking on the water incident coming out of this experience is that he wants you and I to walk on water. He wants the Christian to do the absolutely ridiculous impossible thing. He wants us to walk over situations that everyone else is sinking under. That's what Christianity is all about. And that's what his life in us can help us to do. So Jesus can see in the dark. He can when we can't. He sees us. Do you think the disciples knew he saw them? I don't think so. I think that they were second-guessing themselves: "Why did we listen to him? He's not here, we're in big trouble, we should have waited for him."

I don't think they thought he saw them. And sometimes when you're in the middle of the storm that's what you feel like. I remember shortly after we got here to America, we had left our furniture and everything behind, got rid of it because the church said, "It's easier for us to give you a lovely house this side and fill it with furniture, so we'll get furniture when you come." And there was a man who was one of the elders at that time and he had a little plane. And he said, "Jill, I'm going to take the deacons' wives and we are going to go up to Chicago to the furniture mart and you can pick out all your own furniture."

So we came to a parsonage that was not fully furnished, they'd waited for me to choose, which was nice. And I said, "Well that's great, I'm excited. But there's just one thing, Willie, I don't fly in small planes unless I have to. If I have to, Stuart and I do have a rule: we do not fly in a small plane unless that's the only way of getting where we've got to go." And at that point in my life, I didn't fly in big planes either. In fact, I didn't fly. The first time I think or the second time I ever flew was to come to America.

And so that's what I said to this nice man. And he sort of brushed it aside and said, "Well Jill, you'll have to get used to that because that's what America's like, that's part of our system here and it'll be fine and we're all going together." And I said, "No." I said, "No." And I checked with my husband and he said, "No, say no. You can go by car." And so I said, "I'm terribly sorry, but this is quite a strong thing with me. First of all, I'm petrified of flying but secondly, if we don't need to and we don't need to, then please no."

So he hung up the phone and he picked me up and he took me to the airport. And I remember being very angry and very upset standing at Mitchell Field airport where his plane was. And there was nothing for it at that point and he could see I was angry and upset, but anyway we got in the plane, we went, and we got the furniture. We came back to O'Hare and the mother of all storms was on the horizon. Everything else was grounded and don't ask me how, but Willie got permission to take off. So we took off and we got up and we couldn't get down. They closed everything around, closed down Mitchell Field, they'd closed down O'Hare, and there were two of us, another plane and us, up there wandering around trying to find somewhere to land.

He did not have instruments to land in a bad situation. I was sitting next to him and he began to sweat. Sweat was just running down his face. I want to tell you something, it was running down mine as well. And not only mine, but it was running down Connie's and Gloria's and Almeda's behind me. Well we got up there and I cannot describe to you what it was like. We were in the middle of this thunderstorm and there was light, it was just a constant electric storm all around us. And then there were these huge black billowing pieces of sky. The airplane was literally lifted up as if a giant hand had just thrown up here and then thrown down there and you lose all sense of equilibrium in a situation like that.

I didn't know whether we were on our left or our right and I suspect nor did Willie. However, we came to this little sort of peaceful bit in the sky and all the time they were talking to him trying to help us and the other plane, which we could also hear, trying to say, "Well go to Janesville, go to here, go to there." So he couldn't shut that off from us. He didn't want us to hear all this stuff but there was no way we didn't. And there was this black thing in front of us with all this lightning and we were in this little sort of safe bit as the clouds were moving around and we were going straight for this hole.

And I just said, "Willie please, do we have to go in that hole?" And he said, "Don't worry, we'll probably be hit by the lightning but it won't do anything because it's not grounded and lightning hits planes all the time." Sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat. And so at that point—and this is what I'm getting at—at that point I had this—and the girls agreed afterwards that we all had this sense—this weird sense that here we were up here in the middle of the storm and nobody knew. And here were our husbands running around doing their business and all our children, 16 children represented in that plane, and they were all at school doing their little work and they didn't know.

It was the weirdest feeling, we suddenly came to this realization and then this incredibly comforting sense. "But I know. I see you. I see you. I know exactly where you are." And it wasn't a God standing on the land three and a half miles away, it was a God of eternity, however many miles that is and yet an immediate God. He is both eminent and imminent. And all of us in our panicked prayers had that sense of "I see you, I know where you are." Incidentally that other plane crashed that day and we heard it. Those of you that remember that incident, crashed at the end of Mitchell Field trying to come in and we were left up there.

And in the end he told us to go to Janesville because there weren't any trees along the runway and so Willie, without the help of instruments, could not hit the trees and the skies opened and God brought us safely down. We came to this screeching halt at Janesville and Connie said, "I've always wanted to go to Janesville." Those of you that remember Connie will laugh about that. "I've always wanted to go to Janesville." He can see in the dark. He can see in the dark. And whatever storm of life is as bad as that physical storm I was caught up in—and incidentally I've never ever been frightened of being in a small plane since.

I mean if you have an experience like that, anything else is chicken feed. And you know that's the thing about storms. If you have a really bad storm and you figure out he can see you, he'll come to you, he'll help you, you can walk on water, you can survive it, then the next time the storm comes you look back and you say, "Well what happened when I was stuck in that airplane up there? Well this happened and that happened." And so you get experience and experience gives you hope and hope gives you something to trust and it deals with doubt. So he can see in the dark. He can see in the dark.

Secondly, he will come to you. Jesus came to them walking on the water. Now they saw Jesus approaching the boat walking on the water and they were terrified. Another gospel writer says they thought he was a ghost. He said to them, "It is I" or "I AM. Don't be afraid." Well then they were willing to take him into the boat and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. That's a little snapshot nobody else tells you. As soon as Jesus got in the boat in the middle of the lake, immediately they were at the land where they were going. That is a huge miracle in the middle of the other miracles that's happening in this story.

The others don't tell you that. As soon as Christ was in the boat, they got where they were trying to go. And what a picture this is of humanity straining at the oars. What are you straining at the oars about? What's coming into your life or your family's life, your business life, your health life, that means that you're just pulling against the wind? The wind is contrary and you're not getting anywhere and you want to go there. You want to go to health, you want to go to reconciliation, you want to go to wholeness, you want to go somewhere and you just can't get there because of the storm.

Well, when you invite Christ into the situation, you get there. You get there. Certainly internally. Of course Christ never promises to keep you safe externally. He always promises to keep you safe internally whatever's happening externally. And so as we realize he sees us, we also realize he comes to us. Now there's a little interesting thing here. He's approaching the boat walking on the water and here in this thing it doesn't tell you but in I think it's Mark, Mark tells us or one of the other gospel writers, he went to walk past them. And I've always puzzled about that. He went to walk past them.

Hadn't he come to help them? And when you think about it this is not a placid lake that he is walking on the water over this absolutely calm lake. This is six-foot-high waves that Jesus is walking over. And he goes to walk past them. Past them. He was doing better than they were with six oars and all those heavy men in the boat. Of course he's God. But I wonder if he went to walk past them because they thought he was a ghost and they saw him and they did not invite him into it, they were still straining to try and do it on their own. Maybe they did not recognize him because he was in another form to them as they looked at him in the storm.

When you're in the storm, you often see God in a form that isn't him. He seems distorted. He seems something other. He doesn't seem the Jesus you know or the God that you can trust. You see him as a ghost, you see him as something else. When you read the book of Job, there is a terrible chapter in there where he is seeing God as a ghost. He says, "You've put my feet in shackles, you are torturing me, you are killing me." He is seeing God as God is not. He is seeing him as a ghost. Because when Job was in the middle of his storm, it was very hard to recognize the God he thought he knew.

And it'll be very hard for you to recognize the God you think you know when you're in the mother of all storms. And what you need is for him to speak out of the storm like he did here: "I AM. Don't be afraid. It's me." But he said more than "It's me." He said "I AM." He used one of the names of God. He used the name of deity. That's what he got killed for, using that name. That's what did him in at his trial. "I AM." And they picked up stones to stone him. The Jew himself was never allowed to utter that name, it was so holy.

And Jesus went around the world saying, "I AM. Look at me and you're looking at God. Philip, you want to see God? Look at me. Have I been so long with you and you didn't know I AM?" In the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to arrest him, they said, "Are you Jesus of Nazareth?" And he said, "I AM." He didn't say, "Yes, I am Jesus of Nazareth." He used the name of deity: "I AM." And they all went and fell backwards. Interesting. Why did that happen? Because he was God. So when he came on the water he reiterated, he spoke out of the storm.

In Job, in the story of Job, in chapter 38 it says God spoke to Job out of the storm. The storm had come into his life, God seemed to be distorted, he was a cruel God, he was a God that he didn't know or didn't recognize. But God spoke to him out of that storm and he explained just who he was to Job and Job in chapter 42 says, "I used to hear about you with my ear but now my eye sees you. I do not see you as a ghost, I see you as who you are." And that's something that the storm can do for you. If you listen, out of the storm you will hear him.

It is his word, whether through the written word or in your heart as you know it and you've heard it or from some other way that will come to you and will assure you that he is perfectly capable of coping with this storm. If you want a definition of the word "I AM," when God came to Moses and said "I AM THAT I AM," Moses said, "Is that your name?" And God said, "Yes. Let me define it. I will be all that you need me to be when you need me to be all that you need." That's exactly what that word in the Hebrew means. I will be all that you need me to be when you need me to be all that you need.

And so when he comes to them in the middle of this mother of all storms and they're just getting nowhere and they're scared out of their wits and they see him in another form, he assures them: "No, no, it's me. I AM. And that's why you don't need to be frightened." So you invite him into the situation. And when you invite him and recognize that he is indeed there even though the storm is distorting his image perhaps for you for a little while, then he will come. And then we come to this glorious part of the story. And for this, you have to turn over to Matthew 14.

For once assured that it was indeed Jesus, Peter, typical Peter, says in verse 28, "Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water." I can just see Peter. I love Peter. Once he's got over his fear and he really realizes it's Jesus and Jesus has seen them and Jesus is there and it's going to be all right, he says, "Can I try? Can I try?" Do you have any kids like that? "Can I try? Let me try." And Jesus says, "Come." And I can see the twinkle in the Lord's eye. I think he loves Peter for this.

I don't know how many of us have this quality of daring and risk and, "Yeah, let's have a go," but God loves that. He says, "Come on then, come on guy." And he gets out of the boat and he starts to walk to Jesus and he finds himself in the middle of this lake standing there. And at some point it dawns on him where he is and what he's doing and he says, "I can't believe this. I can't believe this." And instead of keeping his eyes on Christ he starts to look at what he's doing and he can't believe it, obviously.

And he thinks, "I gotta get back, I gotta get back." How do you walk backwards on water? Just been walking forwards, now I've stopped, I gotta get back. And of course he starts to sink and Jesus says, "Why do you start doubting?" It's the word. "Why do you start doubting? Peter, why do you start doubting?" I wonder what he said to the 11 who are sitting in the boat. I think of the boat as the church so often. We're all sitting in this boat straining at the oars, getting nowhere. We're all frightened out of our wits. Christ says, "I want you to walk on water, I want you to be different."

And one of us perhaps, a Peter among us, will say, "I'll do it!" And they get out the boat and they do something. I can see all the other disciples criticizing: "That's just like Peter. Big show-off. He'll sink. Yeah, just a matter of time. He'll learn his lesson." And that's the church. "Never been done before you know, it's not biblical." Nathanael: "Not biblical. Nobody's ever walked on water in the Old Testament. None of the prophets walked on water. Who's he think he is doing something that's never been done for the first time?"

And God wants us to do things that have never been done for the first time. He wants us to take risks. He wants us to say, "God, I believe you can do this with me, little me. I believe I can walk on water if you tell me to." And he told him to. He said, "Come." And then he was so disappointed with him. I wonder how often we disappoint the Lord because we never get out the boat. We never say, "Prove yourself to me, Lord." I think of Jacob praying to that angel of the Lord, which was the trinity he was wrestling with in his story, and he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." God loves us to lay hold of him and his promises and say, "Do it for me, God. Do it for the people I'm praying for." He wants us to have that much faith.

And when we do have that much faith, then we'll find we can do it and we'll walk on water. Of course he said, "Lord, I'm sinking, help me" and the Lord reached out his hand and helped him. Worry is sin. And the only thing that's helped me when I'm panicked and anxious is that little thing. Corrie ten Boom says, "Worrying is stupid. The Bible says do not worry about anything. If you're worrying you're being disobedient, and I had to understand that," she says, "before I could stop doing it." First she tried in her own strength: positive thinking, not fretting anymore. Well that approach was about as successful as attacking a lion with a toy pistol.

Only the Lord can set you free through the Holy Spirit. Ask for forgiveness, be cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, be filled by the spirit of whom Paul says, "God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Now if God did not give you or me a spirit of fear, who did? Well we know the answer to that: the devil. He's not only the father of lies, he's the father of fear. And since when did you accept a gift from the devil? May I ask? We don't accept gifts from the devil. We accept gifts from the Lord.

And the gift he gives us is faith. We're such beggars we have to ask him for everything. But ask him: "Lord, increase my faith." That was a prayer a father in the Bible asked the Lord: "I believe, but help thou mine unbelief." And so we work with God and God works with us. And when you realize that worry is disobedience, that sure helps. When you really realize that worry is disobedience, that really helps.

Now let me give you this acrostic: T-R-U-S-T. T: Remember to go into a mode of thinking, not feeling, when the storm comes. Move yourself into a mode of thinking over feeling because you will feel seasick in the middle of the storm. You will not feel good when the storm comes. You will be frightened, you will be hanging on by your fingernails, you'll be straining at the oars, and if you go by what you feel and react and act out of your feelings, you're not going to do very well in the storm. So put yourself into knowing mode like Job had to: "I know that my redeemer lives." Actually, he just said, "I do not feel that my redeemer lives, in fact I don't know where he is, I don't feel he's near."

I go to the north, I go to the south, I go up here, I go down there, I go to the west, I go to the east, he's not there. So as Job was speaking and acting out of his feelings, he was sinking. But as soon as he started to say, "However, I know that my redeemer lives, I know that in the last days he will stand on this earth, I know that he will take me home to heaven, I know that I will have a new body, I know, I know, I know," then he started to walk on water, you see. Started to depend on what he knew, not what he felt. T: Thinking over feelings. R: Realize worry is sin, and I've just dealt with that.

Unpack your bag: U. Now what does that mean? That's why I brought my bag up with me. Another of Corrie ten Boom's wonderful things. I saw her do this. She comes onto the stage with this great big actually suitcase. I've got the bag I carry all round the world here. It's why my husband has a bad shoulder. He's with me. It's why I have a bad back. But this is my suitcase. And what Corrie did, and it was a wonderful illustration, is she put it on the table and she started to say, "My heart is just like my suitcase, it's burdened down with all these burdens." And then she started to get all the stuff out of it.

And she said, "Now these are all the burdens I've brought to the Lord, out of my heavy heart. There's this child who's asked for help and it's a child that I really love and they need the Lord, and I feel so heavy about that and so I bring that to you. And then Lord, there is this problem I have, I have to face this person and really deal with something, confront them, and I hate to do that, Lord, and I've got to do that today and I just feel so heavy about that. And Lord, there's my health. I don't know what I'm going to do about this bad back that I've got. And Lord, there is this dilemma that I have, I have to go to this city and I don't know anyone and I don't know what I'm going to do and I don't have time to prepare."

And she empties everything out of the bag and the bag is wonderfully, wonderfully light. And that's what we do when we come to the Lord Jesus, isn't it? We unpack our suitcase. And then when we have done that, it feels so much better. And so this is what we do: we do not leave it where we put it. We put it all back in the suitcase and then we go away just as burdened as when we came. And God wants us to unpack the suitcase. This morning, I woke up with these heaviness of some things. And I got up really early and went down to my little prayer chair in the sunroom, got myself a cup of tea of course, always do that in times of crisis, and sat there with my cup of tea and I said, "Lord, I'm going to unpack my suitcase."

And this morning I unpacked my suitcase. And now I have to exercise discipline not to put those things back in again. To trust him. For he already knows what he will do, remember? He already knows what he will do. That's what he said in the feeding of the 5,000. But it says in that story he already knows what he will do. It's only another test because he wants to see what you're going to do and he wants you to trust him because he already knows what he will do with all these things, burdens I've given him. He'll sort them out, he'll keep them, he'll help me with them.

So unpack your bag and leave it unpacked. S: Scripture memory. Drench yourself in scripture, learn scripture because that's what will flood your mind when you need it in the middle of the storm. "I AM." He said he was I AM, I am all that you need me to be when you need me to be all that I am and all that you need. And so as you memorize scripture—and you can do it even with the few brain cells those of us that are older have left, I'm still memorizing scripture. And it's really depressing, now they've told us all that stuff in Diet Coke's floating around in your brain and never leaves your body. Isn't that depressing? After a lifetime of drinking that stuff.

Can you imagine all that stuff floating around in our brain? There's so much stuff going on in here. Can I still put anything else? My mother used to say all the little pockets were full, that's why she couldn't remember anything else. But you know something, you can remember scripture because the Holy Spirit'll help you, however many brain cells you have to do that, however old you are. So scripture memory. And T: Thank him for who he is and what he will do with the situation. It's just like Corrie ten Boom said in that wonderful famous story of hers when they get to Ravensbrück and they're put in this barracks, this hellhole of a barracks with all these women and they have to share each bed with three women to a bed.

And the mattresses are infested with fleas, do you remember that story? And Betsy, as they were being bitten from head to foot that first terrible night at Ravensbrück, she said, "The Lord said"—there you are, scripture memorization—"we are to thank him in all things. And Corrie, that means we thank him for who he is in this awful situation and we even thank him for the fleas." And Corrie said, "I cannot thank him for the fleas, Betsy, that's ridiculous, I cannot thank him for the fleas."

Well they began and they began winning those women, if you remember the story, in that awful barracks. Every single one of them was killed in the gas chambers except Corrie ten Boom who was released through a fluke and an accident on a list. God's accident. And every one of them died eventually, but before they died they had three or four terrible long years to endure it. And in that time, nearly every woman in that barracks put her faith in Christ and the whole atmosphere in that place was changed. And instead of hate and bitterness and vengeance and frustration and hopelessness came light and hope and Christ into their lives.

And one day Betsy said to her, "Have you noticed that this is the only barracks the soldiers never come to? And they never rape us and they never torture us and they never kill us at night like they do in every single other barracks in this place? And you know why? It's because of the fleas." And it was. Those soldiers would no more come near that barracks because it was so infested. And it never got any better, only worse. It was so infested with fleas. And they thanked God for the fleas.

And I don't know what it is but look at the storm, look at the barracks, look at this impossible situation where there seems to be absolutely nothing to thank God for and ask him to help you find something to be thankful for. And that'll help you trust. Thank you Lord Jesus for the fact that you want us to walk on the water, that you allow storms in our lives in order that we might see you as you really are and not as a ghost. And that we may invite you into our boat as we're here straining to arrive at whatever it is we're trying to do.

And God I thank you that you make it possible. You make it possible to walk over everything that perhaps we've been sinking under. If we'll trust you, if we'll leave it with you, if we'll depend on you and not on ourselves and our own energy and our own strength and our own ability. And so grow us in faith we pray, for Christ's sake, amen.