Heart Soul Mind Strength

peace of Christ in the midst of the storm

For the first time since I started this monthly blog, I completely missed a first of the month. My husband is recovering from surgery and I had little focused time writing.

I started this post before yet a new war breached humanity’s global community. Humanity and war have been inseparable for ages, but we each have an option to be at peace instead. This peace is inward, not of the physical. According to 2 Corinthians 4:16, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ” Our body and self-will is being destroyed as we surrender to God’s will, which is the only way for our soul and spirit gain peace. On the outside is the storm, in the midst of the storm is a strong Ark of salvation, Jesus Christ. Whosoever will enter and shelter inside the Ark will be carried through all the floods and frights of this world.

As the world falls apart around us, all are welcomed to step inside the Ark of Safety, calling on Jesus Christ who made himself the way of safe passage to make it through the raging storm and to the coming new day with a brand new start and a rainbow of promise. Imagine the spread of outward peace among people growing naturally from more and more people finding the peace of Christ living inside themselves.

According to Genesis, God called Noah and gave him instructions of how to live in the world but not fall into the destructive behaviors of the rest of humanity. Noah did what God directed because he trusted God and because God saw and gave Noah grace based on faith and a desire for righteousness.

After Noah and his family entered the Ark, they waited on God to signal the cut-off time for all the people who could have chosen to join them and escape the coming flood. Once the door was closed, there was more waiting before the rain fell on the world.

The flood included torrential downpour and breaking open the water trapped under the Earth’s crust and in the firmament above. I assume the Ark was jostled, tossed, and driven on currents in the midst of the loud and jarring storm.

Outside was frightening. This one small family may have felt a growing sense of loss. Everything they had known was covered in the waters, and they did not know what the new world would be like when they stepped out of the Ark. Noah and his family were physically safe, their generations were preserved to live on, but they were human and likely experienced the gambit of emotions.

The world outside was a mess of destruction and loss; however, God’s peace formed a shield around all those who had put their faith in Him and entered the Ark.

Like Noah, the peace of God does not depend upon perfect circumstance in the world. In fact, the worse my circumstances, the greater the contrast within His bubble of peace. There is no circumstance in the world we cannot endure when we live inside His peace.

We are on a deeper level even than Noah, because our salvation is of the soul and spirit. Even if our body and mind suffer from the storms of life, our soul and spirit find rest in God.

The non-physical part of us is anchored on the foundation of our salvation in Jesus Christ, and we are comforted that the body can be replaced and the mind remade.

Besides this, we trust God to be God. I trust that He will do the right thing. He will persue every heart inclined towards Him. He will arrange circumstances and messages to help those who seek Him to be found by Him. He changes hearts and remakes minds by drawing us to Him with love. He woos us and does not force, manipulate, or coerce. By patient, continual working, He calls us to come willingly to Him to find the only true source of peace and love.