This is the time, like never before for the people of God to live in the power of God’s peace. But what gets in the way of us living out of the power of His great peace?
In the Gospel of Mark 4, Jesus heads out to cross the waters with His disciples. As they begin to make their way out onto the water, a great storm of wind arrives with such punishing effect, that the ship itself becomes filled with water. To the average person, this certainly would create a tremendous opportunity for fear and panic to enter in.
A Storm that Seeks to Steal Your Peace
It’s important to remember that these disciples were trained fisherman who knew the ways of the waters. Because of their experience, they knew how to deal with storms.
That tell us how intense this storm was. This may have been a notch above an episode of Deadliest Catch. The Bible said they were afraid for their lives. This was not a minuscule rain storm.
As the ship rocks back and forth, our Lord is at peace; to the point that He is asleep. This entire vessel is full of water and He is not moving. Jesus is out cold!
While the boat tosses and turns in the winds and rushing waves, the first move the disciples make becomes their first mistake.
1. Allowing Fear to Become the Leading Motivator
For most, fear has become their greatest motivator. They may talk a good talk, but when storms arise, fear becomes their narrator. The disciples become filled with fear, not realizing there is a peace available to them in this moment.
At first glance, most of us could sympathize with the disciples for falling into fear. Just like we can all relate to some level of fear that we each battle in various areas of our life. Yet Jesus was calling these fishermen to new levels of peace, a peace which would cultivate an authority and faith over the storm. A new response to storms was needed.
The peace found in Christ carries an authority over the storms of life. But we so often need to go through a storm to discover that our motivation is more fear than it is peace. Completely taken over by fear, the disciples panicked, driving them to wake up Jesus, leading them to their second mistake.
2. Rushing to Someone to Fix a Storm that God Wants You to Stand Up to Yourself
We can so often pray “God rescue me prayers,” rather than standing up to the storms in the power of the Spirit. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with calling out upon God’s help. But I believe Jesus wanted the disciples to know how to stand to up to the storm themselves.
There is a big difference of standing with God’s power and having a “rescue me” mindset. One is driven by faith, the other by fear and a victim mindset.
When a storm arises, you often think you must have someone help you. Although we need the help from others, we often don’t realize that sometimes we need to just stand and quick asking for someone to rescue us. We can even ask God for help, but beware that you are looking for escape, instead of standing in His might.
When an attack is brought on us, our programmed reaction many times is to quickly call someone on the phone, asking for someone to rescue us out of what we are going through.
Jesus’ statement shows that He wanted them to have their own faith to come against the storm:
But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Mark 4:40 (NKJV)
It’s as if He’s saying, “Don’t you have your own faith to step up to this?”
Our Father is seeking to teach His people how to stand up to storms and take our rightful authority over the wind and the waves that have come against us. In panic, the disciples asked Jesus to rescue them from the problem that they could have taken authority over themselves.
3. Making Your Circumstances the Standard for Peace
If you wake up each day and check your circumstances to determine how you will think and act, your faith will be stagnant. Very soon you will be easily taken out by the storms of life.
Your circumstances are unpredictable, an unreliable source for any sense of safety. If you are not discerning, you may find yourself locked in trying to keep all your situations “safe” so you can feel better.
There must be a change, where you focus on cultivating a peace within, right in the midst of your battles.
Many live with a mistaken assumption that the definition of peace is the absence of war or conflict. In the days we live in, the peace of God is an internal reality we can carry that supersedes every situation. Instead of bowing to the troubles you face, the storms of life are meant to bow to the peace that you carry within.
Whatever steals your peace has authority over you. Grow in peace and nothing can shake you.
4. Waiting for the Storm to Hit to Find Peace
If we wait until a storm arrives to begin cultivating peace, we are not prepared. Jesus did not wait for the storm to arrive for Him to begin cultivate peace. He was already in peace, because He lived in a lifestyle of peace.
Sometimes storms come in various forms. All it takes is for someone to rock you out of your peace, because they spew their toxicity or their fear or their junk on you. They put their worry, their concern, their control issues, their negativity, all their stuff, they dump it on you to try to disengage you from the peace that God is calling you to enter into.
Leading up to this storm, Jesus cultivated a lifestyle of living in the peace of God. He cultivated a personal environment that prepared Him for the situations that would come against Him.
When storms arrive, they can often reveal how much peace we are cultivating in our journey. Our Lord lived a lifestyle connected to peace. He knew when to get alone, when to pray and when to depart the crowds.
That atmosphere of peace allowed Jesus to sleep in a storm.
5. Your Care Gets Turned into Fear
Care or concern can easily become gateways into fear if we don’t know how to keep our peace. To someone who does not let fear overtake their perspective, it can seem at times that they do not care.
The disciples see the manifestation of peace in Jesus as Him not caring.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Mark 4:38 (KJV)
The new contemporary 21st century version of the disciples’ plea would sound more like, “Ummm, excuse me . . . . Jesus! Wake up! Do you even care that we are about to die on this ship!? I mean seriously, who sleeps in the middle of a storm?”
In response to this questioning, Jesus reveals the peace that is within Him by acting with such authority and peace. This display would silence the boasts of any brave hero of history. Jesus is not alarmed with fear nor is He even close to panicking.
Surprisingly, He does not even acknowledge the fearful statements of His men. He stands up, moves past the words of doubt and unbelief; walks right past the shouts of fear and goes to work.
There are times where authoritative peace over a storm can look like you do not care. But this seemingly uncaring posture was actually filled with peace and power, enough to overthrow the storms influence.
And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39
Which mindset do you need to shift away from, so that you can hold and keep your peace?
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