In order to challenge and to strengthen the faith of the apostles, Jesus Christ let them sail through the storm at night. There is quite a contraposition between the point of two miracles: the mysterious bread multiplication and the calming of the storm in the sea. The bread miracle was performed at the end of the day, while the storm event was happening at night. According to the symbolics of the Holy Bible, the day is the symbol of God’s presence, while night represents the absence of God, the time of the evil spirits’ action. No matter if a person is dwelling in the light of God’s grace, or under the influence of the sin and disappointment, the Lord is always there for them. There are no circumstances that could reduce God’s love for us.
Do we always experience the implementation of this truth in our everyday life? Whoever has deeply cognized Christ, no obstacles would question their faith and their belief in God’s boundless love to us people. We could experience Jesus’ presence at the darkest moments of our life as well as at the joyful ones. After recognizing Jesus, we would never doubt God’s providence and the good purpose of everything that is going on in our life. Cognition like this is possible through the true faith which is strong, pure, and reasonable.
Whenever we face doubts or mistrust, it means our faith is weak. In this case, we don’t see His presence, don’t feel His love, don’t understand His behavior. That means our knowledge is too little, God’s image is too indistinct for us. Many people have such an underdeveloped image of God: who is a Christian God, what are His features, what is the purpose of His actions. They kind of believe, but they lack knowledge and understanding of the truth about God. Therefore, they don’t trust Him completely, they don’t love Him from the depth of their hearts. Other people obtain the image of God that is being shaped improperly, They misunderstand who God is as well as what the reasons for His behavior are. Sometimes, people choose to stay away from God because of the misconception that He is burdening people by the extremely strict laws, restricting people’s freedom by the prohibitions, not letting them take the initiative.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is hard to understand the behavior of a person unless we know that person, their character, their life, their troubles. Similarly, we can’t understand different events, circumstances, we can’t understand God’s will, God’s providence in our lives and in the world unless we change our prayer from seeking our needs’ satisfaction to God’s cognition, to the understanding of His doctrine. In this case, we would obtain answers for many questions, including why His providence allows some misfortunes in our life.
When we succeed in life, let us accept this success and strengthen our faith in God’s goodness to develop our trust in Him rather than just calm ourselves with the fruits of success. If we have troubles, may they push us for further God’s cognition, may they strengthen our belief in God’s justice, may they teach us hope and love. Let us put some effort into the process of God’s cognition until we would clearly feel God’s presence and love in our life.