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Even Greater Things
It’s in this moment, after Jesus calmed the sea, when we reach the unexpected climax of the story. “He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” (Mark 4:40). What was Jesus driving at?
Jesus didn’t just want to quiet the hurricane for his disciples. He wanted them to quiet the hurricane. At first, this might sound ridiculous. After all, the disciples were just ordinary people. They were flawed and fragile like us. How could they stand up to a storm?
It wasn’t long after this storm-stopping experience that Jesus prepared them for his departure by saying, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
If these words don’t make you at least a little uncomfortable, then you haven’t taken them seriously. Jesus’s expectation is that you can operate in the power of God—and these two examples are not the only times we find this theme in the Bible. The prophet Isaiah made an outrageous claim when he wrote:
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
(Isaiah 40:28–29)
We’re doing life without the strength of God, when God’s strength—the same strength that stills the storm—is available to us.
In the Old Testament, David cried out to God to increase his physical capacity, and God responded to his request. (See Psalm 18, for one example). When the prophet Daniel lacked understanding, God answered his prayer with supernatural knowledge. (See Daniel 2.)
The psalmist found that “on the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased” (Psalm 138:3). Physical strength, supernatural knowledge, and emotional stability—the Bible is full of examples of God bestowing all three. We tend to see our weakness as disqualifying, but God doesn’t see it this way. To him, weakness is the prerequisite to knowing his power in us.
Father, I am weak now. I am weary now. I need your strength. I need supernatural help that can only come from you. Amen.
About this Plan
You were created to live a life of power. That was always God’s intention for you. Yet many of us trust in our own strength—and end up fearful and exhausted. This week’s devotional explores how to turn to God’s strength, not our own, so that we can endure more than we thought possible and experience more peace, joy, and contentment than ever before.
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