Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the source of true Peace. He is the definition of Peace and He lovingly invites us into His peace. As God’s children we are to live peaceful lives. We are in a fallen world with so much devastation, pain and brokenness where peace eludes us from time to time. As we navigate life with its ups and downs we find that God’s peace becomes relegated to a dream and not the reality of our lives.
Jesus Christ while here on earth didn’t not sugar coat the reality of what life would be like: Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). He still goes ahead and makes the promise to us that we can enjoy His peace in the midst of the trials and sorrows.
How can this be? Some situations or circumstances are definitely heavy for our fragile human hearts?
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (Isaiah 26:3 NLT)
This peace that Jesus is talking about is for those who have placed their trust and confidence in Him and have made the decision to keep their minds on Him. The reality is this is not easy especially in trying and difficult times. It is default that our minds will be swarmed and focused on the sorrows and problems we find ourselves in.
How does one get their mind back to Christ?
In these moments, we actually feel forsaken by Him, He seems distant, and actually the temptation to blame Him for not rescuing us very strong which makes trusting and focusing on Him much more difficult and complicated. His faithfulness is something we find ourselves doubting or trying to grapple with. This is honestly true for both the mature and younger Christian on their personal journeys. I believe God orchestrates such moments to grow our faith in Him and experience Him in deeper and more profound ways if we be still and allow Him to be God throughout the season. If we manage by His grace to get past, ‘why me Lord?’ ‘How could you allow this?’ ‘When will this be over?’ ‘Lord put this to an end!’ we can see things from His perspective and allow His process of growing us to be completed successfully.
So how can we keep our minds and thoughts focused on God at all times especially in the difficult trying times and moments that life guarantees will come our way?
Today, God brought me to this story of Jesus and Peter’s experience walking on the water and how it clearly captures the picture of our tough moments perfectly.
Jesus had just performed one of His many mind blowing miracles of feeding the five thousand with just five loaves of bread and two fish. The disciples had all witnessed this. Similarly we have in more ways than one have experienced moments that have left us in awe and worship of Christ in our lives. We have seen His faithfulness and are quite confident of His Lordship and goodness in our lives yet we find ourselves grappling with the truth of who He is in tough moments.
Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. (Matthew 14 :22-23)
PRAYER
Christ is in a moment of prayer. He is spending time communing with His Father throughout the night. I bet you wondering , common Liv that is such a tall order , to be in all night prayers all the time. Believe me i know exactly how tall this order is BUT does not take away the truth that we have to emulate Christ and never let our prayer times slide. We have to maintain communication with the Father for that is where we can receive the grace and the strength to keep our minds on Him. So please don’t neglect your prayer life. It may not be at the level of Christ of all night, but by asking the Holy Spirit to help us grow in the area of prayer we can find ourselves enjoying prayer and not approaching it as a chore or something we have to force ourselves to do.
Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” (Matthew14 :24-26)
While Christ is praying and communing with His Father, His disciples are in the midst of the strong winds and heavy waves which I will liken to the trials, sorrows, tribulations we encounter as we navigate life. These were heavy type, the big leagues kind of situation (insert what that could look like in your life today). This is all happening in the night ( 3am) !! You and I are most likely asleep when these things come away, meaning we are caught probably off guard by these trials. Immediately the enemy catching us off guard steals our peace by launching His FEAR and TERROR missiles onto us. Yes i use the word missiles to bring the point home that this is a SPIRITUAL WAR.
We are overwhelmed, afraid, terrified and wondering where Jesus Christ is anyway in our hour of need ? How could He allow us to be in this situation ? We start questioning His faithfulness, His presence in our lives and everything is literally falling apart , our faith is seemingly failing ! We have probably prayed everything we can but the situation is not budging or changing!
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here![b]” (Matthew 14 :27)
Jesus manages to speak to us in the midst of the chaos and confusion reminding us of His presence and this should immediately calm us down and get us back into His peace. Unfortunately for many of us, myself inclusive this is not enough. We want the storm over ! We want the situation dealt with our way in our time that we lose out on the reality that His presence is enough for the storms and the waves not to overtake us. If only we can take Him at His word and actually rest in the fact that His presence is enough. We can then come back into His perfect peace at this moment.
Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. (Matthew 14 : 28-29)
But only PETER was brave enough to ask Christ to walk on the water in the midst strong winds, heavy waves just as Christ. He was brave enough to want to imitate His saviour. As long as His mind was focused on Jesus Christ, Peter was walking on the water. His thoughts were on HIM and not on the waves or winds. We also have the opportunity to actually do the same, to focus on Christ and the finished work on the cross rather than the storms and the waves.
Can we like Peter, launch out and dare to live as Christ calls us to in the midst of the storms and waves of life?
The strong winds and the heavy waves (trials, sorrows and difficulties) may not alleviate or even change but like Peter with our minds on Jesus Christ we can actually walk on the water. We can have His peace in those difficult situations when we choose to focus on HIM.
But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
(Matthew 14:30-31)
Like Peter, there will be moments when we lose focus. When we take our thoughts off Him and they linger too long on the strong wind and heavy storms and before we know it we are drowning. Friend, it happens but what a comfort that we can ask Jesus Christ to save us, to help us shift our focus back to Him. He will immediately reach out and save us from being swept under by the waves. He is faithful, our Lord Jesus. He is gentle, loving and understanding of our weaknesses. If only we could grow in trusting Him and not every doubt His FAITHFULNESS !
When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.
(Matthew 14 :32-33)
The situation does come to an end. These tough moments are for a season and believe it or not, they shall pass and be no more. Just like the wind stopped, the trial has an appointed time of end. We have to remember to praise and worship God for sustaining and upholding us in the midst of our troubles. We have to glorify Him for the lessons and growth we encounter during these seasons that contribute to our perfection in becoming more and more like Jesus.
What is the point of these trials and tribulations ?
Be reminded that the disciples are those who knew Jesus, who had walked with Him and enjoyed intimacy with Him. This is just a reminder that these things are not for the ‘young christian’ but especially those who have walked with God long and are in relationship with Christ. No one is exempt from the trials and sorrows or the spiritual warfare.
- These moments are training grounds for battle! Like David prayed, Train my fingers for battle Lord.
- Our Faith muscles undergo much needed exercise
- Our trust in God’s faithfulness becomes more confident.
- We graduate from hearing about God to experiencing Him for ourselves.
- PEACE in the midst of Chaos becomes our reality.
Dear brothers and sisters,[ when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
(James 1 :2-4 NLT)