In yesterday’s Holy Lists post (2 Thessalonians 2.13-15), we saw two hard instructions for believers, given as appropriate thankful responses to the great miracle of salvation offered them by God.  “Stand firm” and “Hold to the traditions that you were taught” may sound easy enough, but Old Testament biblical history from the Wilderness through Judges and the Kings to the fall of Israel and Judah show that even believers’ hearts are prone to wander.  Many of Paul’s letters in the New Testament warn of creeping heresy and distortion of the true gospel.

Knowing that holding to the truth is hard, and knowing that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17.9), Paul asks God for further help for his friends:

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave his eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2.16-17)

This short prayer acknowledges past history – that Jesus Christ loved us so much he gave eternal comfort and hope through his act of grace on the cross.  Then Paul asks God for more, to –right now – comfort and establish the believers’ hearts in every good work and word.  Only God’s touch on our hearts will allow us to faithfully follow.

Normally a doxology discussion would fall into a Group Prayer category, but the placement of this one makes it a Fear and Awe topic. It is amazing that God can (and will) do all that Paul asks.  It is also amazing that God would inspire Paul to ask for the help needed right after the command is issued.  It is even more amazing that we believers can understand; give thanks for the help requested and given; and get back up to stand firm every time we fall down.  Awesome.

In Luke 8.22-25 (also Matthew 8.23-27 and Mark 4.35-41), Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.  A nasty storm arises, the boat is filling with water, and the disciples are scared.  Jesus, tired after teaching and healing for days, sleeps.

The disciples wake up Jesus in a panic, saying “Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus wakes up, looks around, and “rebukes the wind and the raging waves, and they cease, and there was a calm.”  His comment to the disciples is another rebuke, “Where is your faith?”  The passage does not tell us, but I am guessing Jesus goes back to sleep; his teaching was done for the moment.

For the disciples, many of whom were hardened fishermen, it was one thing to be afraid for your life in a raging sea.  But another kind of fear and awe emerged – “they were afraid, and they marveled” – when they witnessed the power and authority of the one who is sovereign over the wind, the waves, and all of nature.

The disciples did not know it yet – Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as Christ is not until chapter 9 and the crucifixion and resurrection are at the end of the book – but this man who saved them from drowning would also be saving them from their sins.  The same God, same Jesus, same sovereign over nature is still inspiring fear and awe, working the great miracle of saving believers from their sins.