Peace in the Midst of the Storm

by Skip Heitzig | February 23, 2024

I love the story about the man who was out on the ocean when a storm came. His boat was rocking back and forth, and he didn't know if he was going to make it. But he remembered Psalm 121:4: "He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." As he thought of that promise, he folded his hands, looked up to heaven, and said, "Since You don't ever rest, there's no sense in both of us losing sleep. Good night." What a way to look at life.

It may seem hard to be at rest when everything around you is chaos and conflict, but peace isn't the absence of a storm—it's being at rest in the midst of the storm.

Now, it might make more sense to say, "Be at rest" to a worrier who is stressed out, or someone who's the workaholic, pedal-to-the-metal type, or someone who is hearing bad news about their future. I believe, however, that this applies to all of us today. We live in a day and age when people are probably more stressed than ever before. The average citizen is filled with anxiety and sort of living on the edge, agitated with economic and political developments in this world. Some struggle just to get by, week by week.

I hope you're not thinking that God is sitting in heaven looking down, seeing what happens on earth, and biting His fingernails, saying, "What is going on down there? How am I ever going to be able to save the earth?"

The God of heaven and earth is the one for whom nothing is impossible, the one to whom all glory and honor goes. We're called to rest in the truth He has given and to rest in His power—power that created the universe and is sufficient to deal with anything that comes our way.

Remember what Jesus said in the upper room at the Last Supper? "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:1-3).

For 2,000 years, ever since He uttered those words, the church has been waiting for Jesus to come again and receive us to Himself. So many hymns, so many songs have been written about the second coming. This is the ultimate reason to rest—He is coming. And that will end all the conflict, all the pain and sorrow of the world, all the oppression, and all the heartache and loneliness.

Though we can be shaken by what we see and hear and experience, we can ultimately know that whatever is going on is under the control of a God who allows certain things to occur, choices to be made, and plans to be carried out—all under the careful umbrella of His sovereign will and power.

You can rejoice and rest in the fact that our sovereign God—who has made promises and proclamations, who has power and a plan—neither slumbers nor sleeps. Because of Him, you can be at peace in the midst of any storm.

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