One day, Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a great windstorm arose. The waves broke into the boat, and it filled with water. The disciples were terrified. But, Jesus was in the stern, asleep! The disciples woke Him and said, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And, the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And, He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:36-41, Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 8:22-25, & John 6:16-21).
We are all acquainted with the “storms” life brings. Sometimes storms are external and involve the things going on around us, but many times, for me at least, the storms are internal. I’m currently emerging from one such storm, and the reminders in the verses above have given me a great deal of help in doing so. This storm involved a situation that consumed my thoughts daily. I’d go to sleep thinking of it, wake up thinking of it, begin thinking about something else, and then somehow wander back into thinking of it throughout the day. I couldn’t focus on work. I couldn’t focus on my kids. I worried about what to do to fix it, and I worried about the things I had already done that maybe made it worse. It was like a chaotic windstorm in my soul, where my thoughts were like giant waves crashing against me again and again until I thought I’d break. Like the disciples in this story, I cried out to God, “Do you not care that I am drowning here!”
I had forgotten that Jesus does care. He cares more about me than I could ever care about myself, and He cares more about this situation than I could ever imagine. But, He is also not anxious about it because He knows He has it under control. I had forgotten that too. I had forgotten that “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Indeed, He is before the situation causing my “storm,” and He has promised to work it all for good. I was a woman of little faith, who, as it says in James 1:6 “…was like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” But, these verses reminded me that the God who could still the storm on the sea with a word also had the power to still the storm in my heart. I needed only to turn my eyes to Him and trust!
The situation is not yet resolved and may still get worse before it gets better, but I know now where to take my worries, and I know the One who can speak “Peace. Be Still” over my soul. As you face your own storms, I pray you too would be encouraged to call out to Him and that you’d experience His peace—"the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7).
By Katie Miller
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