“He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them …” Mark 6:48
It seems odd that Jesus deliberately went out to where the disciples were in trouble but when he got there, he was about to pass by them. Similarly in Luke 24:28 on the road to Emmaus, we read that “Jesus acted as if he were going farther” but they urged him to stay with them.
Jesus never barges into our lives without our invitation. He never pushes himself upon us even if we are desperately in need of His help to solve our problems. He never violates our free will but rather He waits to be asked.
In Matthew 7:7 Jesus tells us to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” In James 4:2 we are told that we do not have, because we do not ask God. It is up to us to do the asking.
People today often pride themselves on being self-sufficient and feel they can make on their own, without any help from anyone. This attitude makes it hard to ask God for help. Yet the thing to remember is that Jesus will pass by the self-sufficient and He will pass by us too, if we don’t ask Him for the help we need.
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