Jesus had spent the day speaking to large crowds of people on the shores of Galilee. Jesus’ words would echo in the people’s minds for a long time and down throughout eternity.

As evening fell, Jesus spoke to His disciples, inviting them on a journey with Him. “ ‘Let us cross over to the other side’ ” (Mark 4:35, NKJV). Jesus knew a storm would come but suggested they go anyway. He had an important life lesson to teach His closest followers.

You likely know what happened next.

Consider these points:

1. Jesus falls asleep on what was likely the only pillow in the boat. The fishing boats usually had one pillow, which the driver of the boat, at the stern, sat on. The person at the stern guided the boat to the destination. So here, Jesus is in the position of the boat’s “driver,” but He falls asleep at the wheel.

2. Not all the disciples were new to sailing. Peter, James, and John were experienced fishermen. They knew the Sea of Galilee, and they would have known how to navigate a storm.

3. This is the only recorded Gospel account of Jesus sleeping. During one of the worst storms in their lives, when the disciples are ter­rified and think they’re going to die, Jesus is asleep at the stern.

4. The disciples’ response in their time of crisis is “Do You not care?” They questioned Jesus’ character and His love for them. Too often, this is also our response when we face hard times.

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It’s in the midst of hopelessness that we might try to save ourselves (like the disciples), or sometimes it’s when we feel pain or loss that we start to question or doubt God’s love and care for us. We presume that He should act in a certain way based on what we think and see from our human perspective. But, as with the disciples, it’s in life’s storms that God can work the greatest miracles. God is always faithful, even when His apparent lack of involvement doesn’t make sense to us. He’s in our storms with us and can calm the storm when we cannot.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study

Mark 4:35-41; Mark 5:21-34; Romans 5:3-5; Job 19:23-27; Job 23:8-12; Luke 24:13-27; Romans 8:18,28.

Memory Text:

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5, NKJV).

One evening, as the sun dipped over the horizon, a girl was walking home when a dark storm blew in. She quickened her pace, knowing there was still a way to go. A lone raindrop fell on her cheek, then another, and, before she knew it, she was drenched. She started to run toward the front door of her home, where her father rushed to meet her. He had been watching her from the front window. As he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, he asked her, “I saw you just now, in the rain. Why, with every bolt of lightning, did you stop running to look up and smile?”

“Oh, I stopped to look up,” she said, “because God was taking my picture!”

What is our response when the storms of life come or when we have certain setbacks in our relationship with God? Do we put our head down as the rain pelts upon our backs or do we look up, knowing and trusting that God is there as we turn our face toward Him?

This week, we’ll explore some responses we often have when life is challenging. We’ll consider how we might use life’s setbacks to strengthen, not weaken, our most important relationship.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 13.

Sunday–>

This mission story illustrates the “Mission For All” objective of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan, which says in part, “Christ mingled, showed sympathy, ministered to needs, won confidence, then invited people to follow Him. The goal is to take a genuine interest in people, leading them to Christ and inviting them to unite with the Seventh-day Adventist Church as disciples of Christ who make disciples.” Read more at IWillGo.org. Watch a short YouTube video of Miriam at bit.ly/Miriam-IS.

Miriam, a 41-year-old mother in Zambia, didn’t feel well. Her head pounded. Her body ached. Dark sadness filled her mind.

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With a heavy heart, she went to the opening night of a weeklong evangelistic meeting in Livingston. At the meeting, she was befriended by a Seventh-day Adventist woman named Majorie. Miriam poured out the pain of her heart and asked for prayer. Majorie prayed for her.

Then something unusual happened. The next day, Miriam was stirring a pot of maize porridge on a fire outside her house at 11 a.m. Like many Zambians, she did her cooking outdoors because a national power shortage had left many homes without electricity. As she stirred, she sensed a voice say, Go and read the Bible right now. Leave your pot and read the Bible.

Miriam didn’t know what to read in the Bible. She went inside the house, opened her Bible, and read the first chapter that she saw. She was amazed. She felt like God was talking directly to her.

She closed the Bible and finished cooking the porridge outside. Then she returned and read another chapter. It seemed like God was telling her, “Do you know that I still love you? Live how I want you to live.”

Joy flooded her heart. Her body aches disappeared, and her headache went away. She knelt down and prayed, “Forgive me, God.”

Miriam returned to the evangelistic meeting in the evening. She darted over to Majorie and told her about what had happened.

Tears came to Majorie’s eyes when she learned that Miriam had heard the voice telling her to read the Bible at 11 a.m. At that exact time, she had felt an urge to pray for Miriam at home.

“Find time to read the Bible every day, and don’t forget to pray all the time,” Majorie said. “The Bible and prayer are the key for everything.”

Months have passed since Miriam began reading the Bible and praying regularly. Her head has stopped pounding. Her body has stopped aching. The dark sadness that once filled her heart has been replaced with sunny joy and a fervent desire to live for God.

“The Bible has encouraged me,” she said. “God is working through the Bible. If the devil wants to bring confusion, I just claim the promises of the Bible and pray.”

The Bible often uses agricultural metaphors to describe our spiritual condition.

Hosea 10:12 is one example that captures what we have discussed this week:

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

We sow, reap, break up the hard soil, and seek God to come close to us. The hard soil of our hearts must be prepared and ready for the rain (Holy Spirit) to fall on it. God can give us the desire to prepare the soil, but, ultimately, a relationship with Him is a partnership (see Philippians 2:12-13). We have to turn our heads toward Him, reach out to Him, and cling onto Him. Then He works in us to do the rest.

One great example of what clinging to God means can be found in these verses: “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day” (Deuteronomy 4:3-4).

Discussion Questions

Summary: Identifying our sins in response to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and surrendering self in repentance are vital parts of having a thriving relationship with God. Knowing that we are completely forgiven and covered by Jesus’ robe of righteousness is the most transformative experience for a human being. Not only do we feel the weight of sin lifted, but we feel the love of God surround us as we are drawn closer to Him. This binds us to God, strengthens us spiritually, and compels us to love Him with every fiber of our being.

<–Thursday <–Thursday

Nice clothing too often defines the rich by worldly standards. Some people say, “I dress this way to express who I am.” But in heaven, everything other than our relationships will fade away (Matthew 6:19-21, NKJV). Our personal identity should be wrapped up in Jesus and His perfect robe of righteousness.

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Jesus called the man without a robe “friend,” and despite his lack of response, they must have had a relationship. The man must have known about the robe but had chosen not to wear it. Jesus’ character is perfect and spotless, and He offers it to us that His church “should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white” (Revelation 19:8), “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27).

The white linen “is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 310.

Adam and Eve wore a white robe of soft light before they sinned; after they sinned, they realized they were naked (Genesis 3:7) and made clothing of fig leaves. Then God replaced their fig leaves with clothing made of animal skins. There was a sacrifice that produced their garment. In a similar way, we accept Jesus’ sacrifice by accepting His robe of righteousness. “Naked and ashamed, they tried to supply the place of the heavenly garments by sewing together fig leaves for covering. . . . Nothing can man devise to supply the place of his lost robe of innocence. No fig-leaf garment, no worldly citizen dress, can be worn by those who sit down with Christ and angels at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God’s presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 311.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

When we feel the weight of our sin and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to the foot of the cross, we should ask for God’s forgiveness, knowing that “the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalms 103:8, NKJV). This same verse was spoken by God Himself (Exodus 34:6) after His chosen nation had grieved Him.

The fact that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy is also the very reason Jesus died on the cross—so that our relationship with God could be made right again.

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It’s when we are willing to acknowledge and confess our sin; when we say, O, Lord, here I am again . . . “ ‘Be merciful to me a sinner!’ ” (Luke 18:13, NKJV), that Jesus—who has already been working in us and for us with the Holy Spirit before we even call out to Him—sees the weight and takes it from us. Our burdens are lifted at Calvary, and Jesus is surely very near when we come to Him and, even before, seeks us as the Good Shepherd and stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20). Let’s not stay away from the Cross, looking at God from a distance. Let’s run to Jesus and exchange our sins and burdens for His righteousness (Zechariah 3:4).

Slowly read the following verses. Write in your own words what they tell you about God’s grace toward you:

• “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NKJV).
• “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21, NKJV).

<–Tuesday Thursday–>