The Storms Of Life

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.

Isaiah 26:3

Once while flying between cities on the African continent, I began to share my faith in Christ with some reporters who were accompanying me. None seemed interested in hearing the Gospel.

Suddenly, the place entered a very turbulent storm. The plane shook and began to bounce up and down.

After we had successfully come through the storm, one of the reporters approached me and said, “What were you saying about life after death?”

When Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee with some of His disciples, a storm came up and began to toss the boat around. His disciples cried out in fear, but Jesus slept at the stern of the boat, unafraid and unintimidated by the weather.

When they awakened Him, He rebuked them for their lack of faith, and then He rebuked the storm. Both the storm and the disciples were silenced!

There is a wonderful old hymn which says, “He gives us peace in the midst of the storm.” In life there are all kinds of storms: storms of unbelief; storms of materialism (mostly brought about by those who want more material things than they have); storms of secularism, moral degeneracy, and international tensions.

Jesus was at peace in the midst of that storm because He and His Heavenly Father had a relationship that gave Him peace. It is that type of relationship that God wants to have with us.

Are storms in your life making you afraid? You can have peace despite the storms. Stay close to Jesus Christ. Read God’s Word. Pray.

Our Father and our God, I come to You with these frustrations and stresses on my life. I pray earnestly for Your peace to calm my aching soul and soothe my troubled heart. Remind me of Your power to overcome the world and its stresses. In the name of the One who brings peace. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).