Mark 6:45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ESV
In the KJV “he made” is the word “constrained.” In the Greek it ‘s anagkazo, which means to compel. Jesus compelled them to get into the boat; He forced or ordered (commanded) them to “immediately” go to the other side. He knowingly commanded them to enter into a situation in which all of the strength and confidence they relied upon would be of no use; every thing that they depended upon that would hold Jesus off.
Isn’t that just like us? We have an idea that God is leading us to some particular end, some desired goal. But He is not. Where we are, where we seem to be headed, and how we are going to get there in God’s perspective are irrelevant. What we call the process, God calls the end. His purpose is that we totally depend upon Him and His power … now!
What is your dream of God’s purpose right now? Are you dependent upon Him and His power … right now?
If we can remain calm in the midst of the turmoil and chaos in which we find ourselves, we have just realized the end purpose of God. He is not working toward getting us to some specific goal; His end is the process. He wants us to see Him walking on the waves of our circumstances with no solution in sight, no success, just the absolute certainty that Jesus is walking toward us. What we need to understand is that it is process and not the end result that glorifies God.
The other thing about the process is that it is all about “now.” God’s purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future, which is where we tend to be focused. That is where we get it wrong; focusing on the end we have visualized. For God it’s all about the training and preparation. That’s what He calls the end.
Think of it this way. God’s end is to enable us to see that Jesus can walk on the waves in our life at this moment. But if we are looking at some perceived goal or end we are not paying attention to His immediate presence in the circumstances. As one commentator put it: If we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.
So, if Jesus constrains us in the moment, our first response is to look up so that we do not miss Him. Remember, if the disciples had not seen Him coming He would have passed them by. Let us never let Jesus pass us by because we are looking at some perceived end result of our circumstances. Let’s not miss the “precious moment.”