“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe. (John 14:27-29)
Read: Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalm 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20
Relate: I was in my spot. We had a conversion van and when a good strong storm was brewing, I liked to climb up to the top and just lay there watching. As the lightning crashed down around me, as the thunder shook the roof of that van I was laying on, and as the cool rain splashed down bringing a welcome but stinging reprieve from the warm summer day, I would just lay there completely at peace with the world. Unfortunately, my spot wasn’t much of a secret. More than once my mom would open the front door of the house and call out, “Get down off of there! The neighbors are calling again!” Adults are no fun. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone?
Years later I was in my spot. It was my sophomore year in college and my spot now was indoors. As soon as the chapel was opened I would go up to the balcony, on the left side, and sit there where I would pray and do my devotions. I had been in the habit of going up there for a couple months every morning for forty-five minutes to an hour where I would do my devotions and pray. (I would leave as soon as the dining hall would open so I could have breakfast) That spot was a familiar place to me when a storm of a much different kind came crashing down around me. On election day my father died from a head injury while playing basketball. For a good week or so after I returned to campus I would go to that spot and stay there for hours until people started filtering in for chapel. Even as I cried and prayed and raged at God, even as the storm crashed down inside me, I had peace at the core of my being. I knew I would find my way out of this because I was not alone in the storm.
React: My heart breaks when I hear of someone who does not know Christ loses a loved one. I cannot imagine how they could survive such a storm. I have known death. I have known storms, but I have never not known peace. No matter how bad things might get, I have never been alone. Even when it seems like Jesus has left, His peace is still with us. I cannot imagine what life must be like without that peace. I hope you will never have to experience such a storm alone either. The peace I know is available for you as well.
Respond:
God, I am so grateful that You have never left me alone. Even the disciples, when they had to go through that horrifying terror of your arrest and death, they went through it. They weren’t abandoned. I am so grateful for the peace You have promised me and help me to in turn be a representative of that peace when those around me whom I love, and You love, are going through storms of their own.
THE RIVER WALK 
Your experience reminds me of a friend of mine. It breaks my heart also when someone who loses a loved one doesn’t know Jesus. There is nothing greater than the peace of God when going through trials of life. Very grateful that I have Jesus. Thank you again Beejai.
Reblogged this on My Trini Heart Beats When… and commented:
❤ this. Thank God for always being our fortress. Peace be unto us all.
❤
When I was 18, my father died after a short illness. Several months later, my best friend was killed in a car accident driving home from a party at my house where drugs and alcohol had been consumed. He never should have been allowed to leave, but he was and the results were disastrous.
I did not know Christ at the time, and I had no peace. I was tormented by rage and guilt and grief, and what had been my personal disagreement with God to that point escalated into a 40 year ‘war’. Kind of silly, I know, going to war with God. Like a parent dealing with a petulant child, He probably shook His head and waited patiently – although with considerable sadness – those 40 years for my tantrum to end.
For Him, it was but a second. For me, it was most of my life. Blaming Him instead of knowing Him and turning to Him exacted a toll that cannot be calculated.
Lord, please help bring BJ’s words to those who don’t know you. Show them where to find peace in their own storms. In Christ’s name I pray, Amen.
Reblogged this on The After-Oakdale Chronicles and commented:
Very wise words from a blog I follow. I just love this post, and I so wish I had discovered my own need for Christ decades before I did.
Love this. Thank you
Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
Do you have the peace of God which Jesus promised to His children? The peace that passes all understanding? The peace this world cannot give?
The peace that comes from knowing that all is well – He my Lord and Savior is in control and will not allow anything to harm me that is not according to His plan. Do you want that peace? Do you long for that peace? It is only found in Jesus, Lord and Savior.