Is it possible, you might wonder, to be at peace in the middle of chaos; to take a breath and be still in the middle of the storm? In our world today we are taught to go with the flow and stay as busy as possible. But often that flow leads to chaos in our personal lives because we don’t know how to stop, breathe, and reset to a place of peace. We can’t rely on the world to bring us peace, but we can rely on Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to bring stillness to our lives. Let’s see how he demonstrated this with the disciples.
On that day, when evening has come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
mark 4:35-41, esv
They,
like many of us, started out with everything going smoothly. There wasn’t a
storm when they got into the boat, and I’m guessing they didn’t even see it
coming. But right in the middle of their journey across the sea the storm arose,
and water started filling the boat. There was chaos all around them and they
were fearing for their lives, and there was Jesus…asleep…in the front of the
boat. They thought Jesus didn’t care that they were going to die. They assumed
that he would sleep straight throu, gh the storm and they would be left to fend
for themselves. But when they woke him up, he rebuked the storm with a call of peace
and the wind ceased.
We
all start the day hoping things will go right. We don’t usually look for the
storm that may be coming at home with our spouse or at work with our boss. We
might be in the middle of lunch when a co-worker comes in and starts accusing
us of not pulling our weight on a project, or we might be in the middle of rush
hour traffic when our kids call saying that we forgot to pick them up from
their after school activity. It may seem like Jesus is asleep in the middle of
our storms and that he doesn’t care about what is going on in our lives, but I
assure you, he cares a great deal. If we will stop, call on Jesus, and ask him
to take charge of our storm, he will. If the wind and water obey Jesus, the
circumstances of your life will bow to him as well. He wants to have authority
in our lives. We need to allow him to come in and have faith that he is going
to do what he came to do. He is the Prince of Peace. If there is anyone who
knows how to establish peace in our lives it is Jesus.
Stop. Breathe. And rest, knowing Jesus brings his peace into our lives.
(Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay)
