Around the 1st of the year, my middle school-age niece invited me to join her in a reading plan on our YouVersion Bible app. We, along with my mother and sister, have been doing a plan to read through the New Testament. It has been such a good thing going through some of the oh-so-familiar stories in the Gospels. It never ceases to amaze me how no matter how familiar the stories may be, the Holy Spirit can always breathe new life into it and reveal something fresh and new.

Last night I was reading in Mark 6 about when Jesus walked on water and calmed a storm. Now, as someone who grew up in church, went to Vacation Bible School every year, and who has been the story lady for VBS for the last several years, this is not a new story to me. However, the version in Mark struck me in a way it never had before. When I read 6:47-50 I noticed something I never had really thought about. “Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. They were all terrified when they saw him. But Jesus spoke to them at once. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ he said. ‘Take courage! I am here!'” (NLT).

The thing that stuck out was where it says that He (Jesus) intended to go past them.  That seemed pretty odd to me. Why, if he saw that they were in trouble, would he walk out there just to go by them? I read a couple of different translations and even a few commentaries to see what that was about. Some veered toward the idea that just like how God passed by Moses to reveal His glory (see Exodus 33), Jesus was revealing His glory. Others didn’t say much about it and seemed to not have a solid answer. The idea of revealing His glory sounds reasonable, however, I had a bit of a different train of thought. Maybe, Jesus wanted for them to ask for his help. So often throughout the gospels Jesus did not perform a miracle until he was asked. He even went so far as to ask the man at the pool of Bethesda if he wanted to be made well (see John 5). 

When Jesus teaches us how to pray he has this to say:

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?  Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 11:9-13 NLT

So, if you are in need, why in the world wouldn’t you cry out just like the disciples did in the midst of the storm? Sometimes all you have to do is ask!