Peace In The Midst Of The Storm

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.