Don’t let the fear in your circumstance disturb the peace of your faith
“Expect the unexpected with unshakable joy.” – Gay Broughton
I was driving to Indianapolis one day in a snowstorm. The road was not great, but it seemed passable, so I kept going. I crossed an overpass that was frozen solid, and my truck quickly turned sideways. I had no control over where the truck would go next. The truck became snowplow in the foot of snow and tall drifts along the steep embankment. My windshield was a complete whit-out from the snow flying past me. And I remember thinking, “Now I am going to be very late” and “I hope I don’t turn over.” The truck finally stopped at the bottom of the hill some 200 Feet from the road.
Once the truck came to rest, I called a tow truck. Ten minutes later the tow truck driver was at my window with a long cable in his hand. “Just stay where you are, I will take care of this.” He waded a couple of hundred feet through the three-foot snowdrifts over to his truck and started the winch. A few minutes and a debit card swipe later, I was back on the road to Indianapolis. During this whole ordeal, I never had to leave the warmth of my truck… God loves me so.
The remainder of my commute was pretty quiet. I watched more carefully for black ice. Left alone with my thoughts and the fresh memory of an incident that could have easily turned out much worse, I began to thank God for his mercy. I am impressed that He is always watching out for me and keeping me safe. I fear when I allow my faith to wane. I fear when I forget that he is with me and His provision never fails. Check this scripture out.
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace,[g] be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:34-39)
When Jesus rebuked the storm, perhaps he was also telling his disciples to have peace and be still. They were just as worked up as the storm. They were caught up in being afraid of the situation and not in the power of peace they had in themselves. The disciples even shouted at Jesus that they were about to die. They were upset with Jesus and accused Him of not caring about them because of the storm that raged all around them.
Then Jesus said, “Peace be still” and immediately everything calmed down. The wind, the waves and even the disciples immediately calmed down. Notice the action of Jesus was to call for peace with no qualification of where peace was needed. He called for peace period – all of creation obeyed at that moment. If you will read on in your Bible, you will see that Jesus then rebuked the disciple by calling out their lack of faith. “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” He was telling them to have faith and to speak peace over the storms of their lives.
So, ask yourself, do you have faith or fear. There will be storms and they will come in all shapes and sizes. They will destroy things and they will cause damage to you, your loved ones and perhaps even bring death. But what will you do when the wind picks up and the waves start to crash? Will you speak to the storm and call for peace? Or will you tremble in fear and look for someone to blame?
Let me call all Christian to dress in the full armor of God from the helmet of salvation down to shoes that will plant your feet in the readiness for the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:10-18). When the storms hit you can enjoy the victory of the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-25) rather than the defeat of walking in flesh.
Storms are unexpected in our lives and they can be quite destructive but they should not shake our peace.
