“The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,
and the Lord sits as King forever.
The Lord will give strength to His people;
the Lord will bless His people with peace” (Psalm 29:10-11, NKJV).
In recent days, we have seen the people of West Virginia suffer incredible loss of homes, family mementos, vehicles and even the lives of loved ones. It has been devastating to watch. We have learned that people in our church have family that experienced terrible loss in the flood waters there and our hearts and prayers go out to them daily.
Our affiliate ministry Gleaning For The World, which sends supplies across the globe to help hurting people, quickly began working with state officials to provide aid, sending an immediate 100,000 bottles of water to emergency shelters, with seven tractor-truckloads of supplies eventually going there.
Our church sent a team of 20 individuals that have been working 14-16 hour days – assisting with the clean-up effort. This volunteer team also helped prepare and distribute 35,000 meals.
We believe that Christ taught us to put love into action. It is one thing to tell people that God loves them, but it’s more effective when we show them the love of Christ while handing him urgently needed food or water or other supplies. We see ministry as a two-fold action of (1) helping people with their immediate needs and (2) earning their trust so that we can communicate the Good News of the Gospel.
The fact is that no matter how tough life gets, God is able to bring peace in the midst of any storm, as Psalm 29:10-11 notes. I have seen this to be true in my own life as God has so wondrously ministered to me during the days when I experienced the deepest and darkest spiritual waters. And that is our message to those who do not know Jesus — His love is beyond anything else this world offers.
This is not “pie in the sky” theology; it is the promise of the God of the universe that He is able to move within us during times of turmoil so that we can have peace. This is not just any peace; it is the peace that passes all understanding because it emanates from Almighty God. Nothing resembles it and nothing is a substitute for it.
Charles Spurgeon stated, “The little world with us, like the great world without, is full of confusion and strife, but when Jesus enters it, and whispers ‘Peace be unto you,’ there is a calm, yea, a rapture of bliss.” There is such truth in that statement. If you have been there, you know that God’s peace brings such an extraordinary assurance that He is there, always faithful, always ministering, always strengthening us as only He can.
Let’s close with some wonderful words that Jesus left His followers before returning to the Father. In John 16:33, He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
No matter what you are facing today — tribulation, illness, spiritual unrest, persecution — Jesus says we can have uncommon joy in Him. This world offers strife and empty promises, but the promises of God are eternal. I pray that you know His great and abiding peace today.