All tagged calm
As Christians we spend time in church and in faith based activities with other believers. We also find ourselves surrounded by the fallen world, and sometimes it can feel like both of these activities are having the same effect on us. The hectic nature they share, the imperfect humanness that is there; they wear on us, so let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions today… how much time do we spend alone with God, and do we allow this quiet time to restore us?
We read the account of Jesus calming the sea and marvel at His power, and command over it, but if we read this passage carefully we see that He gave two commands here. The first was a single word… “Peace!”, and the second was “Be still!” Although these are commands that scripture says He spoke to calm the sea, we should hear, and obey them in our own lives too… not to calm various situations we find ourselves in, although this would be appropriate, but to bring peace to our souls, and still our spirits. The first to bring us calm, and the second as we feel the presence of God. Do we hear Him in this way in the midst of the storms we encounter?
Sometimes we feel like we are surrounded by trouble and that everywhere we turn there is a problem brewing, an enemy preparing to harm us, or some form of suffering that has befallen us, and in such times it is easy to fall into despair by believing that there is nowhere safe for us to turn, and that there is no waiting rescue. However, as believers in God, and Jesus Christ we do have relief, and there is a calm at the center of every storm we find ourselves in… let me tell you about that calm. Let me tell you about Jesus.
So often we seek God in the midst of whatever tempest that we find ourselves in, and then wonder why we can’t hear him. Do we each have a quiet place and time where we can have a conversation with Him? Jesus slipped away from the crowd, went off into the night, or, as He prepared for His time of passion, He went to the quiet of the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. This isn’t because God’s voice is weak, it is because we are distracted by all the turmoil that surrounds us. When we are in a crowd of shouting people, or in the midst of a raging storm, isn’t it difficult to hear even when someone yells our name out loud? Well… it is like this when we pray, or read scripture, too.
We accept Jesus Christ as our savior, and immediately find ourselves seeking knowledge of Him in ravenous fashion, but quite often the things in our lives that we approach in this way die out just as quickly as they flared up. Thus, we are instructed to walk in our faith, and to steadily make progress. Our goal in faithfulness should be to please Him in everything we do… not to simply WOW Him in a flash of righteous spirituality. Our Love should imitate the love of Jesus, and be life long, even to eternity.