Why are you so afraid?

“[Jesus] replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:26
Today’s verse comes from the well-known passage where Jesus and His disciples are sailing across the Sea of Galilee, when a violent storm bears down upon them. Jesus is sleeping in the boat, but the disciples are panicking. They wake Him up, saying, “Lord, save us!” Then He responds, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”
A storm can be frightening, all the more so when you are out on the water and your boat is being swamped. But Jesus was not bothered by the storm – He was soundly sleeping through it. (It has been suggested that the storm was actually Satanic in nature, because when Jesus arose, we read, He rebuked the wind and the waves – the same word used for when He rebuked demons.)
The disciples showed a lack of faith. Jesus was with them, but they thought the boat was going to sink. They were fearing for their lives, yet the One who had given them life was right there with them.
Jesus says the same to us today. He has promised that He is always with us (Matt. 28:20), that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Why are we afraid, if we know that He is with us? We need to get our eyes off the wind and the waves, and look to our Lord who is always right there.