Anxious For NothingSample

Is peace really possible today? Cheri went on a quest 11 years ago to find out. Here’s what she discovered along the way: 

I remember it vividly. The day I decided I couldn’t live like this anymore.

Here I was, a fully devoted follower of Christ, responding to life pretty much like everyone else. I lived in fear and worry, yet I knew it shouldn’t be that way! Consistently I read in the Word of God not to be afraid and to be anxious for nothing. But that sounded impossible!

God has a lot to say in the Bible about fear and its antidote: peace. In one instance, Jesus and His disciples were on a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee when a furious storm threatened to sink them. They all fought to keep afloat, and what was Jesus doing? He was sound asleep! Right in the middle of the storm.

The disciples asked, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus got up and rebuked the storm, and it went completely calm. Then He asked the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40 NIV

That pretty much summed up the conversations I was having with God. I could feel Him asking me why I was afraid, and I was answering, Isn’t it obvious? Look at my circumstances! Who wouldn’t or couldn’t be afraid?

In my quest for peace, several things became crystal clear.

1. My circumstances were determining my level of peace. If life’s circumstances were all good, then I was at peace. If storms were encircling me, I was stressed, anxious, and tired all the time—exhausted from my emotions. I was just like the disciples in the storm. I was fearful of the storm, hurt, and confused because I thought God didn’t care. But Jesus brought me to my next point.
2. Jesus was trying to teach me peace is possible, no matter the storm. Are you relating to this battle? It’s not easy, is it? I was still struggling to understand how Jesus could expect me to experience peace in the storm, wondering if He truly even cared, when I realized my next breakthrough point. 
3. My storms revealed my level of trust. Peace doesn’t mean everything is going right in your life. It means being at peace when storms are shaking your life. I hadn’t learned to trust God and find peace even in those storms. Have you hit that wall yet?

It was obvious I had some room to grow. But I’m learning that the path to peace is found by trusting and fixing our thoughts on the One who is never unsettled by storms. It didn’t happen overnight, but little by little, more peace and rest rejuvenated my tired, weary soul. 

-Cheri