To me, one of the most incredible stories in the Bible is the one where Jesus sleeps through the storm (Mark 5:35-41). For years I have marveled over it: How Jesus could, in all of His humanity, sleep so blissfully while the winds howled, the apostles screamed, and the boat flooded?

Then one evening the Lord showed me that the satanic attacks many of us suffer are just as great as the one Satan sent against the apostles in that storm! Instead of those raging winds he sends tempests of anxiety, fear, despair, slander, illness or persecution.

Jesus slept because He understood the authority the Father had given Him. The ferocious elements were, to Him, just something to be dealt with. He had His Father's Word that they were going to the other side.

Anything that got in the way was simply to be rebuked and removed:

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be still!" Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" The disciples were absolutely terrified. "Who is this man?" they asked each other. "Even the wind and waves obey him!" (Mark 4:39-41, NLT).

Heavenly Father, I praise You for the authority You have given me in Your Son. The storms of life are merely elements to be overcome, and I am now ready to enter a new spiritual dimension of faith and trust in You. I will say to anxiety, "Be gone!" and to fear, "Quiet down!" From now on, I will sleep soundly, for there is victory in You! In Jesus' Name, Amen.