Find Peace In The Storms Of Life
We live in stormy place, known as the Cape of Storms, so we all know what a storm is. We all go through storms in life too, you’re either going into a storm, currently in a storm, getting out of a storm or you have a break between storms. We don’t just need comforting words that it’s going to be okay, what we need is an encounter with the God of peace.
This story unfolds on the Sea of Galilee, which is like a basin of water surrounded by mountains. It is a geographical hotspot for storms to suddenly arise because the wind rushes through the mountains and creates big waves. The small boat they are in held about 12 to 15 people. They weren’t in large fishing vessels of today, but rather in a very vulnerable little boat. Some of the disciples were fishermen, and had a tolerance for storms, as it comes with the profession. They knew how to navigate the different weather conditions to know when it was safe to fish and when it was too dangerous. If these guys were panicking, then you know something’s wrong. It’s like when you’re flying on a plane and the pilot begins to panic, it’s pretty much it’s time to panic. They got so scared they cried out to Jesus saying, “we’re gonna die!”. Jesus just get up and says, Peace! Be still! I want you to know that you can experience peace in the storms you are facing. Your storm can even be calmed. No amount of water on the outside of the boat will sink the boat, and no amount of storm on the outside of your heart will ever sink your life. It’s whatever you allow into your hearts that has the power to actually sink your life. If you do, it will erode your faith. You start letting worry, and strife rule your life rather than the peace of God. Have you noticed that we often encounter storms in our lives where we feel like God can’t or won’t work? Today you might be in a place where you’re experiencing something that you don’t have peace in and you’re struggling to believe God for. So I want to give us four ways to find peace in the storm.
1. Believe Jesus Word
Jesus said, “let’s go to the other side”. Do you think that if Jesus had any intention of not reaching the other side, he would have said let’s go to the other side? He had a plan, a purpose, a mission. He had work to do on the other side of the lake. But when the storm arose, they doubted they would make it. They allowed the fear of perishing to become greater than the presence of Jesus. I wonder how many times we get afraid in the storms that we’re going through, because we don’t remember the word of God that says there is actually a purpose beyond the storm? There is a plan for your life. There is a great hope for your life. There’s a hope for your ministry, hope for your spouse, hope for your health.
It’s on the other side of what we’re traveling through, and yet we can experience peace in the middle of what we are going through. We must get God’s Word into us so we can believe His promises. The storm did not change their destination, but it was a test on the way to the destination. The disciples reacted in a good way and in a bad way, they reacted in fear because they felt forsaken. Don’t you care that we’re about to die? Have you ever said to Jesus, “Do you even care? Have you just left me? Am I in this thing by myself? Because you don’t seem to be saying anything to me?” They were feeling forsaken, but at least they turned to Jesus. This is a lesson for us that we can turn to Jesus, we can turn to His Word.
What does His Word say about the situation that you’re facing? What are His promises through scripture that you can believe? I found this quote this week, “faith dispels fear. But only in proportion to its strength”. God is increasing the strength of our faith. What we need to do is be able to increase our level of faith. How do we increase our faith? Where does faith come from? It comes from hearing the Word of God. In this same passage of scripture in Matthew 26, the word for ‘little faith’ that Jesus used, doesn’t mean that you have no faith. It means it is an ‘ineffective, defective or deficient’ faith. So your faith isn’t quite there yet. Why is your faith not quite there yet? And so for all of us, we need to get God’s Word into us to strengthen our faith.
2. Speak Jesus' Word over the storm.
What did Jesus do when they were terrified? He got up he rebuked the wind and the waves using His words. He said “Peace! Be still”. He didn’t build a plan, or tell them not to worry. He doesn’t even take a moment to encourage them.
He speaks directly to the storm. He releases His word over the storm. The Word of God has power to shape our personal world. It has creative power. We live in the world created by our words. You can either agree with words of life or agree with words of death. His Word is alive and is a creative force in our world. When God created the world, He spoke. So we release faith through the power of His word spoken over a storm. This is not blab it and grab it, it’s not the power of positive thinking. No, this is the power of God’s Word released in the world. And God’s word goes out and it will not return void but it will achieve everything that it set out to achieve (Isaiah 55:11). God’s word is powerful. If Jesus would speak to the storm, we can follow His example. We don’t have authority over nature like Jesus did, but we can apply this to the storms we face in life. Peace. Be still, to the anxiety that you’re facing. Speak peace into that. Don’t just accept it.
3. Trust His Character in the storm.
Scripture teaches us that God is the God of peace. In fact, in Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is the peace that we need. I love it in Isaiah 26:3, that says the Lord will keep in perfect peace, whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in Him.
God He wants to give you peace. He wants to keep you in perfect peace so that you can go through the trials and the storms of life. You can be at peace when the boat is rocking and waves are coming in. You can be at peace and not be flustered and worried and concerned. You don’t have to let the drama of people around you become your drama.
You don’t have to let the chaos around you be your chaos. You can have peace, and stay calm. Your trust can be in Jesus who says He will never leave you nor forsake you, but He will go through the storms of life with you. If the Prince of Peace is with you, why should you worry? Your life is more than what you are facing right now. There are some things that we only discover about Him when we go through storms. You know, storms are there to build more than just our faith. They’re there to build our character and to show us what we are relying on. There are some things you discover about God only when you travel through difficulty. The disciples knew Jesus as the healer, the provider, a good friend, but not as storm calmer. How could they ever discover that Jesus had authority over nature until this moment? When storms rise in our lives, so does anxiety, worry and fear, but we must resolve to trust in His good and faithful character, even if you can’t hear His voice.
4. Find Jesus, find peace.
Philippians 4:6-7 You can be traveling through the worst time of your life, yet you can experience peace that you can’t understand because you’ve got the presence of the Person who brings peace. I’m not here to say everything’s gonna be okay. What I do know is you’ve gotten through 100% of the storms you’ve ever gone through. Jesus promises to never leave you nor forsake you. His promise is to be in there with you. His promise is that He will be present if we want Him, and will bring peace to our life. If other people are losing their minds, doesn’t mean that we have to. Don’t be anxious. Stop torturing yourself. Stop worrying. Are you going to are you able to change the markets? You able to change your diagnosis? Are you able to change your relationship? What I do know is that you don’t have to travel through it with your heart a mess. You can travel through it healed and whole, fully believing God. As the disciples reached out for Jesus’ help, they found the stormed subdued. It is the same for us, that the pathway to experiencing real peace is found in the Presence of Jesus.I pray that you will encounter the God in the middle of your storm right now. You’ve tried to navigate the storm long enough on your own. It’s time, you need to experience the God of peace, and the peace of God. May it be released in your life.
The journey that we’re going on as Revive Church is really to call people back to life and to find life in Jesus.
And in finding life, you will also be able to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.
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