PEACE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM
By Rev. John D. Miller
I am sure if I were to ask the question, "how many of you have experienced storms in your life," every hand would be raised because that’s how life is. Life has storms and no one is immune to them and yet in the midst of these storms, for the believer, there can be peace.
So today I want to give you three ways to have peace in the midst of the storm.
1. The first way is to trust in God’s Word. I am sure you have heard the statement before "God said it and I believe it and that’s good enough for me." This is the way it should be but many times it isn’t.
There are people who can quote God’s Word and have memorized books of the Bible but when the rubber meets the road they have a hard time living what it says. Maybe it’s because we don’t realize God’s Word is living and active like Heb 4:12 says and that it will accomplish in your life what it says it will accomplish if you just believe.
God’s Word has stood the test of time and is still the #1 best seller. When the 9-11 attack came Bible sales soared because there is comfort in God’s Word. There are many times in the Scripture where God’s Word was spoken and then came to pass. God said "let there be light and there was light."
God’s Word also came to pass with Abraham and Sarah. God said "you will have a son" and even though they got ahead of God and tried to work it out on their own, they did have a son. Sarah had Isaac even though she was way past the childbearing stage.
Moses discovered the reality of God’s Word when he was trapped in the wilderness with several million people and Pharoah’s army was right behind them. God said "lift up your rod and stretch your hand over the sea and divide it and the Children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea."
God also said in Numbers Chpt. 13 to Moses, here is the land I promised you, it’s yours go and spy out the land and they did and it was everything God said it was a land flowing with milk and honey. The only problem they had was they failed to trust God’s Word and had to wander for 40 years before they could possess the land.
All throughout Scripture we see God’s Word being proclaimed and coming to pass. The Scriptures predicated the coming Messiah and it happened just like it said. God’s Word has stood the test of time and yet many times we hear it and may even have it in our head and yet fail to apply it to our situation because it’s not in our heart.
When you look at my text you see something very important and that is in vs. 35 where Jesus says "let us pass over unto the other side." Notice He includes Himself. I am sure this passed right over the disciples head for if they would have thought about it during the storm they may not have been so fearful. It’s the same promise David writes about in the 23rd Psalms when he says "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." I know this is not easy but the word through is the key. That means you will come out on the other side.
And then of course the Scripture that applies to us today and even more so to them is Matt 28:20 which says "And lo I am with you always even until the end of the world." You see He is just as much with us now as He was with them. The only difference is they could see Him and we can’t.
Jesus told them "let us pass over unto the other side" and we too will pass over to the other side no matter what the storm is if we will just trust in His Word.
#2 Now the second thing we must do in order to have peace in the midst of the storm is to not fear.
I know this is a hard one for the whole world lives in fear and probably so for fear does not come from God but rather from the devil. Remember when fear came into the world? It was in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. They went and hid themselves and when God came looking for them He said why are you hiding? Adam said I was afraid and I was naked.
There is good fear and bad fear. Good fear keeps us from killing ourselves and also good fear is the king of awe and reverence we have toward God. But the bad fear has a very negative effect on our life. It causes us to loose faith and go off in all kinds of directions. This kind of fear comes from the Devil, for when Paul wrote to Timothy he said in 2 Tim 1:7 for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. A spirit of fear is very destructive, it causes worry, anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
Recently on prime time television they had women on a show who were suffering from post-partum blues and they had a fear they were going to kill their babies. They had thoughts of drowning them or stabbing them or burning them. The psychiatrist had a big name for it, but what it was was unnatural fear. Something that wouldn’t happen.
This is what a panic attack is like. It is an unnatural fear that you are going to hurt yourself doing ordinary things when the odds are it would never happen.. And fear can come upon you suddenly. This is apparently what happened in my text. It was toward evening when they got into the boat to go to the other side. I am sure it was a very calm quiet evening so Jesus went to the back of the boat to lay down. While he is asleep a storm comes up suddenly. This can happen to any of us, a phone call, an accident, a sickness can happen suddenly and before you know it your right in the middle of the storm.
This happened to my wife and I when our middle daughter was a baby. We were fishing near a dam one day and our daughter was in a infant eat next to the water. It was a nice day when all of the sudden a big gust of wind came up and literally blew her into the water and she started to float away. We jumped into the water and caught her immediately, then a big storm came up.
There are several things to note about this story. One is that even though Jesus was with them the storm still came which means that no one is immune to the storms. Being a christian doesn’t exempt you. And secondly even after the storm begin Jesus did not wake up, I mean they were bailing water out of the boat and it is rocking from side to side and yet He is still asleep which means we are not always instantly delivered when the storm comes.
You see storms help us to grow in our faith. Isn’t that what James Chpt. 1 tells us, "count it all joy when you fall into various temptations" or also translated tested in different ways. Count it all joy? What are you talking about, what’s there to be happy about when hard times come. We don’t want to be happy, we want to get mad and worry and be filled with anxiety. No the joy isn’t because of the storm, but the joy is in the storm knowing that your faith is going to grow stronger after you come through it.
#3 This brings me to my third point on how to have peace in the midst of the storm and that is to have faith in God.
Have you ever known God to fail you? Has there been a time in your life when God let you down? No of course not. So if He has never let you down before what makes you thing He is going to let you down now. You see what the disciples should have experienced was knowing that when Jesus said they were going to the other side, they were going to the other side safely no matter how great a storm it was. Sure they would have to bail water out of the boat but not with fear knowing that Jesus was with them and they were not going to drown.
But the disciples were a lot like many people are today, they were scared to death and so they woke Jesus up frantically saying, "Master don’t you care that we are all going to drown." Now really did they think Jesus was going to drown. I mean they had already seen Him heal the sick and cast out demons. So when Jesus woke up He simply said unto the raging sea, three very important words and He only said them once and that was "peace be still" and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Now what did Jesus say to his disciples? He said "why are you so fearful?" That’s a good question that we need to ask ourselves sometimes, I mean if Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and H knows our past, the present and the future and He said in His Word I will never leave you or forsake you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world, then why are we so fearful. Is it because we are not sure He is going to work everything out or do we think God is not working fast enough. Listen to what I am saying God knows what’s best for your life and He is always right on time.
This doesn’t always mean we should sit around and wait for our deliverance from the storm, God can direct us as to what to do. Remember the disciples had to bail the water our of the boat, but it does mean we should not get ahead of God.
God should not be your co-pilot as some bumper stickers have said , but rather He should be in the drivers seat and you’re following Him not Him following you.
Not the second thing Jesus said to them was "how is it that you had no faith?" I mean whatever faith they had they lost it. If there is no faith then there is no hope and if there is no hope then there is nothing for you to hang on to.
I am sure you heard the story about George who was in the mountains taking pictures of all the beautiful scenery when he got to close to the edge and started falling down the side of the mountain. On the way down he managed to get a hold of a tree branch and he started yelling for help, but no one came for he was all alone.
Then suddenly he heard a voice that said "George?" George said "is that you Lord?" "Yes George it’s me." "Do you trust me?" George replied. "Oh yes Lord you know I do with all my heart." "Do you have faith in me?" "Oh yes Lord I would do whatever you say." "Then George let go of the branch." George said "what?" "I said let go of the branch." There was dead silence when George yelled out, "anyone else up there?"
We say we trust God in the hard times but when it comes right down to it do we really? Are we willing to let God do it His way or are we still trying to do it our way.
I like what Isa 26:3 has to say, it’s a very powerful scripture, listen to it "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Did you hear that? Perfect peace. Does this just mean when the storm is not raging? No it means at all times no matter what you are going through.
Paul summed it up quite well in Philippians 4:6 when he said "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
And now here’s the verse that sums it up quite well Mark 5 vs. 1. "And they came to the other side of the sea." And you too will make it to the other side no matter what the circumstances are.
