You know the feeling. You have had days where nothing seems to go right. Weeks. Months. Year(s). It is hard to see anything past what is going on right before us. We’ll hear people say things like, just change your mindset and be more positive. But the truth is that is not what changes our minds so we experience peace.
Paul, the prisoner who is part of the shipwreck, writes in Philippians 4:6-7 to be anxious about nothing, present your requests to God, you will experience a peace beyond understanding (paraphrase). This same person wrote this when he was imprisoned earlier.
Imagine that. Peace in the midst of chaos. A peace beyond understanding. Have you ever felt this before? This is more than a simple feeling. This peace is something that seems to overtake you and helps you be able to function in the midst of the chaos around you.
This is what I believe is happening to Paul. He is imprisoned; but he is on a voyage to Rome and the ship he is on gets destroyed. He has to be the voice of reason and help the soldiers do the right thing because of faith not because of fear. We see what happens when people react from fear (soldiers) and also from faith (Paul).
So now the question remains, how do we get this kind of faith, this kind of peace? Paul did not do anything. Well, he did do one thing, he prayed and stayed connected to Jesus Christ. This kind of peace and discernment only came from God. God is the one who encouraged Paul and gave him the wisdom about what needed to be done to help protect and save the people he traveled with.
Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Christ. As you go about your day, your week, remember the only source of true peace comes straight from Jesus Christ. Keeping Jesus Christ at the forefront of your mind, of your heart, gives you the ability to remain outwardly and inwardly calm when everything else around you seems to be falling apart.
This is a great way to think about the Christian life of faith. It is through faith we believe God’s presence is here and is real. It is through faith we believe the promises of God will stand firm and last eternally. It is though faith we believe we can do all that Christ calls us to. This faith is also a gift from God (Romans 12).
I invite you to take some time today and thank God for His presence. Seek him throughout your day because he is guiding you and is forming you to be a vessel to share his love and his grace. Everything around us does not have to be perfect; but we should remember we have a perfect God that is all around us and within us.
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