CHRISTIAN LIFE & GROWTH

Peace in the Midst of the Storm

By Laurel J. Davis
See Laurel's blog at The Reluctant First Lady

"In every life a little rain must fall."

Man, what an understatement. Everyone will experience, not just rainfall, but downright torrential storms during their lifetime. It doesn't matter who you are — saint or sinner, wise or fool, strong or weak, rich or poor, black or white, whatever. We all go through our share of tumultuous times.

Even Jesus Himself — the One and only perfect Man, the Creator of all things, Almighty God Himself manifested in the flesh — yes, even our Lord and Savior dealt with storms while He was here on earth. Since He is God, He could have just kept the storms from coming. But He loves us so much that He allowed Himself to suffer for our sake, in part so that we can see His example of how to have peace in the midst of tumult (cf. Hebrews 4:15).

The actual, literal storm at sea recounted in Mark 4:35-41 illustrates how Jesus, our Example, handled stormy situations. That storm was so fierce that the ship was filled with water and the men were terrified for their lives. But unlike them, Jesus was so at peace that He stayed asleep in spite of all the chaos around Him. He remained at rest. It wasn't until His panicked disciples cried out to Him — Master, don't You care that we perish?! — that He arose and took action.

Notice, Jesus wasn't moved to fear because of the cry of the storm. He was moved to compassion because of the cry of His people.

Then He responded with three simple words: Peace. Be still.

In that short but sure command, we see a picture of how our Savior saves us from our life's storms — namely, with His wisdom, His authority, His power and His compassion.

Jesus' actions immediately calmed the disciples' fear as well as the storm itself. Indeed, the threat of perishing in the storm was never His personal concern because before the trip He told them, Let us pass over to the other side. He did not say, "Let us try to make it if the weather permits" or "Let us pass away." As God, He already knew this bad storm would come to meet them; but also as God, He had already determined for them to reach their destination regardless. So, when the storm did come, He remained at peace even in the midst of it.

Peace. Be still.

Jesus wants us to remain at peace even in the midst of our life's storms. Sometimes it's peace in the sense of the storm itself being stilled. Often, it's peace in the sense of our spirits being calm and still even as the storm rages around us. Either way, maybe we'll never be strong enough to "sleep" through our storms like Jesus did in this story, but we can trust in the Lord's wisdom, authority, power and compassion to bring peace on our behalf.

That's because, really, it's not the storms themselves that decide how we'll fare, but what type of foundation we're built on (Matthew 7:24-27). If Jesus truly is Lord of our lives — Captain of our ship, so to speak — then we can confidently cry out to Him, Master, help me! Then He will command, Peace. Be still, to both our fears within and our storms without, until we've passed safely over to the other side of them.

Peace. Be still.

Those words can calm even the most fearful of storms and carry us through to the other side of them because of the wisdom, authority, power and compassion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Image Credit: Hartwig HKD; "Sunflower Rain"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | Christian-Life | Hardships