a·midst
/əˈmidst/
surrounded by; in the middle of.
Every child of God has these honorary titles: Chosen, Loved, Enough, Priceless, Treasured, Royalty & Called. Among these titles, we are given many more! My favorite however is Royalty-- Our God is our King, making His children his princes & princesses! So being the Royal Children of God that we are, how can we learn to reign amidst the rain? How can we find peace in such a chaotic world? Well, we have to look to our Father, “For He Himself is our peace…” (Ephesians 2:14).
As the sermons leading up to Christmas talked more and more about peace the more I realized how much my life lacked it. Why am I worrying about things that in a day or two won't even matter? Why am I not focusing on the birth of our Savior this Christmas? The answer to these questions hurts my heart a lot, but I have to face it in order to change it. My mind wasn't set on "things above" but rather on "worldly things" (Colossians 3:2). Frankly, I think most of us think that being worldly is really obvious-- which it can be-- but it can also be really discreet. Like during the holidays for example, I was thinking of what I wanted and what I thought others wanted which led me to slack at focusing on how to intentionally love those around me. It is so so easy to get wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to care for the people around us. Especially when life goes sideways. When things aren't going how we planned it, we lose it. We get frustrated, short-sighted, impatient, and worst of all, we get selfish.
I found that when I'm unhappy in life it is because I'm being selfish. Every. Single. Time. I think of what I'm feeling, what I want, how I can get it, what I can do, how I'm going to do it, etc... This selfish outlook on life can really lead to self-destruction. When you think of only yourself you quickly push out everyone and anyone that wants to help you, and before you know it you feel alone, because you even shut out God. I mean I would know! I catch myself doing this often because I'm a fixer. I see something broken and immediately I want to fix it. With laser focus I think of a hundred different solutions for the hundred different problems that I'm scoping out. Due to my tunnel vision, I miss God. I can picture Him trying to get my attention, but instead of going to Him, I want to fix it myself.
However, as I'm tinkering, about to glue the last piece back on, it all seems to crumble. And I lose it. That sinking feeling rises in my chest from the pit of my stomach and my heart beat is deafening. I start thinking, "why? why me? why now?" and that's when I turn to God. But let me tell you something that I keep messing up on-- God is not a last resort. He is more than a "quick fix", or a "brush up", God is all powerful, all knowing. When you try and try to do it your own way, you will fail, and it will hurt oh so badly. But when you see the storm approaching, and you look to God instead, just like Peter you will be able to stand amidst that storm next to the King of kings.
When we look to the problem, we're looking down and that's when the rigorous waves swallow us whole. Yet, when we look up to Jesus we are filled with peace knowing that He has got this whole situation figured out and we don't have to even lift a finger to help Him. No matter the situation, God will work it for your good, just trust Him. You can't reign over a storm if you are constantly drowning in it. Lift your head up, talk to your Father, ask for His help. When you pray as the first step versus the last resort, you won't see your storms as overpowering, but instead you'll overpower your storms.
As we move into this new year make it a point to build your relationship with God. Trust that He knows what you need more than you do! Afterall He is the one who made you... Overpower your storms by standing next to the all powerful God, who loves you oh so much. How could you not smile at that fact? God loves you. That alone brings peace into any situation. Know who your Father is, go to Him so He can help you through anything. He loves you way too much not to hurt when you're hurting, so go to Him and walk on water.
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