08/26/2025
Have you experienced the peace of Jesus Christ? When your life is being torn apart by calamity do you find rest and peace in Him? In Jesus we find a peace like none other; I am not talking about the carefree blue sky feeling of someone who is trouble free and having a good day, but the deep and abiding peace that can exist and comfort us in the midst of calamity and chaos. A sense of peace that defies all understanding.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
It is easy to be peaceful when all is well in our lives. We can achieve this feeling on our own, and although God is there with us, we tend to lean on our own provision, but when hurricanes strike, earthquakes destroy our homes, and death surrounds us, there is no worldly peace that we can provide ourselves, and none that our neighbors can render which will be sufficient. In times like these our own human instinct, which we harbor within us, and even the voices of our closest friends, will chant the mantra of Satan as they say to us the same words that Job once heard...
“Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die."”
Job 2:9 ESV
When our intuition tells us all is lost; when the doctors say "no more can be done"; when we stand before the rubble that once was our home or our life… who do we call upon? In those moments of deepest sorrow, our greatest pain, our most complete loss, how do we find peace in that moment? Friends, there is only one place where we can find it, we find it in Jesus Christ, and it is the peace of God alone that He brings us which will comfort us in such times.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:7 ESV
When I was a teenager, a miracle happened in my life, I was camping with the boy scouts and while swimming from a floating platform in the middle of a lake to the shore where our camp was, I ran out of steam and sank beneath the water’s surface... I was drowning. As I thrashed towards the bottom an incredible peace suddenly came over me... it was the peace that comes from the total abandonment of oneself to God. I can't describe it fully but what I can say is this... it is truly beyond all description and understanding, and it fills us like water fills a sponge; it lifts us up and removes all fear, pain, and worry... it takes away all care for the world and fills us with God's contentment, joy, and understanding as we realize that we are in Him, and He in us. There is nothing in this world that can conquer or compare to this… we are in the midst of God's peace.
That was the miracle I felt, but a second miracle occurred that day. I heard a voice say "Stand up! Stand up!", and even though I didn't want to, nor see the point in it, I put my feet down and they felt the cold mud of the lake bottom. When I straightened up my head broke the surface and I gasped in lungs full of air. I had somehow been transported from far out in the lake to being mere feet from the bank, and there was no water in my lungs. Staggering out onto the bank in disbelief I fell face down, exhausted, on the ground.
God's peace can fill us like no other comfort in this world can. He doesn't depend on our view of reality or the limitations we see before us. This is what Jesus spoke of in John 14:27, and although it sometimes comes to us without our asking, it comes more often when we call out for it and give all up to Him in exchange for it. Perhaps you will feel it as you stand in front of the debris left of your life, or at a hospital bed with a dying child, or under a bridge when you have no other place to seek shelter... wherever you are, or whatever calamity has befallen you, He can find you there, and He will quiet your fears and still your suffering. But you can feel His peace without experiencing life’s hardship too, you can feel it every day if you will simply still yourself and give your heart, mind, and soul completely to Him while seeking His presence in worship and prayer.
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”
Colossians 3:15 ESV
Have you ever been walking down a city street and passed a homeless beggar only to hear them reciting a scripture as you pass by? That verse that they say over and over again might seem meaningless to you, but it is their key to a place that many wealthy men would trade their fortunes for... it is the one key that unlocks hope, and grants them passage to God's peace. Many of us place our hope in possessions, and our fulfillment in the praise of those around us, but none of that matters compared to the peace of Christ in the next breath of faith that we take, or the comfort of one more meal at the soup kitchen with the one verse of scriptural hope still fresh on our lips. God's peace overcomes all else and is available to each of us.
There will be people who recover from tragedy; they will rebuild their lives, homes, and regain their health, but if they have experienced the peace of Christ when all they had left to call on was Him... then in their hearts they will long to lose those things again.
Some will never regain the life they once had. They will sleep wherever they can find shelter, take meals from the goodness of their neighbors, and limp down the street in pain with a verse of scripture as their only defense against the suffering... but for those of them who felt the peace of Christ as all was being ripped from them, none of that matters, and it was a price worth paying.
There will also be those who find the peace of God at the altar on Sunday, on quiet walks as they stroll along in the Lord’s presence, or in their prayer closet as they seek Him. Receiving the peace of God doesn't require that our lives fall apart... just that we bare our souls to Him in total submission. However, when calamity strikes it scrapes the self confidence from us and makes the raw flesh beneath more susceptible to His touch, and although this isn't always necessary it makes reaching the point of hopelessness in our own ability to help ourselves much easier to reach.
No matter how we experience God's peace, once we have entered into it through Jesus it will give us insight into the value of life versus death, and reveal to us the conflict that the Apostle Paul felt inside when he said these words to the church in Philippi:
“I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
Philippians 1:23-24 ESV
God's peace beckons to each of us who has experienced it and it continues to call to us from that moment on. Its sweet perfume reached out to Paul, and it will call us too. Then, just as it did for Paul it will reveal to us that our job here is not done. It will strengthen us when we feel weak and encourage us in the face of all fear. Every one of the twelve Apostles except John was martyred in some horrific manner, but none were conquered by the experience because the peace of God through Jesus Christ filled them always... does it fill you today? Would you like to feel it now?
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.”
2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your peace that fills me. I thank you for the peace of Jesus Christ which you have imparted to me, and the comfort of your Holy Spirit that leads me in prayer. I come to you in the good times Father with praise upon my lips and seek your peace. I come to you Lord God when my life is in disarray and ask you to comfort me with your peace. I shout to you over the raging storms of disaster and death Father, pleading for your mercy and eternal rest and peace, and I fall to my knees when you pour your peace over me when I least expect it. You are merciful beyond compare and your peace, rest, and joy sustain me when all those around me are shouting "curse God and die!" Holy Father, in such times I find myself deeply embedded in you, and in you I find that all peace and joy abound. Never let me be wooed by my own ability to calm myself or into believing that I can provide myself with joy. Be with me always Abba, and when the time comes to call me home, I will revel in having found your peace multiplied in its fullness once more and will praise your name joyfully before all creation forevermore. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who wraps me in the arms of your rest and peace. Holy are you who loves me and gives me your joy unspeakable where once I knew only happiness. I will praise your name Father, and shout of your honor and glory for all to hear. You are my hope, my peace, and my joy… even unto eternity. And I pray that you will find me worthy in Jesus Christ to be in your presence forevermore.
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes