Each week I get to lead a Bible study with some young children.  Generally, we take turns reading some scriptures, reading a reflection on those scriptures and then sharing our thoughts on what we have read.  The theme of the lesson the other day was “Jesus Comforts Us.”  We looked at several passages of scripture which described instances of the Lord intervening and comforting various individuals during times of sadness, stress and fear.  The phrase “Jesus comforts us” was repeated multiple times in the reflection to help reinforce that concept.  As one of the youngsters was reading the reflection out loud, he kept reading it wrong.  Instead of saying, “Jesus comforts us” he kept saying, “Jesus confronts us.”  He read, “When we are scared, Jesus confronts us.  When we are sad, Jesus confronts us.  When we are hurt, Jesus confronts us.”  And while confrontation was not the intent of the reflection, I think that kid was on to something.

Jesus does confront us.  No, not in a hostile way, but in a healthy way.  When the disciples were frightened by a terrible storm that they thought would capsize their boat, they frantically woke up Jesus and He rebuked the storm and calmed the wind and the waves.  Then He turned His attention to His disciples and asked them in Luke 8:25, “Where is your faith?”  Later, in a similar situation, Peter who had been invited to walk on the water with Jesus, took his eyes off of Jesus and focused on the storm-tossed waves.  Peter became scared and started to sink.  Peter cried out to the Lord, “Help me!”  Jesus reached out His hand and helped Peter.  Then in Matthew 14:31 Jesus asked Peter, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

I am so glad that youngster read the reflection the way he did.  When we are scared, sad or hurt, we can trust the Lord to reach out His hand, help us and comfort us.  We can also expect the Lord to confront us.  He confronts us with the truth that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  He confronts us with the truth that He is trustworthy.  He confronts us with the truth that He always cares about us.  He confronts us so that we may grow in our faith and learn to look to Him sooner and lean on Him longer.  He confronts us so that we learn to trust Him even more.