Today is the National Day of Prayer. Prayer is nothing new to us – many of us have been praying diligently for many years. However, as we are beginning to see, prolonged warfare can cause even the most seasoned prayer warrior to become weary beyond words. I believe many of us have experienced this exhaustion in previous months.
While praying recently, God reminded me of a day, not too long ago, when I was fatigued.
I had scheduled a time to pray with a friend from out of town. When the day and time arrived, I was exhausted. Some unexpected things had taken place and I no longer felt the energy to pray a fervent prayer. When my friend arrived, she looked about as frazzled and weary as I felt.
I invited her in, and we began to talk. We talked about things going on in life, nothing major, just everyday things – suddenly, a hush came over the room. It was a hush you could feel.
It was as if Jesus Himself walked into the room, placed His finger to His lips and said, “Shhhhh.”
We became still in His presence.
After a few moments, she asked, “Did you sense that?!”
“Yes” I responded.
We quietly began to pray.
As I prayed, the Lord took me to the story in Mark 4:39 where Jesus was on the boat with the disciples when the storm began.
As you may recall, the disciples were afraid and woke Jesus from His sleep. The word of God says, “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, peace, be still. and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mk 4:39).
That was exactly how it felt in my home that night. A great calm came over the atmosphere.
God began to show me that Jesus had stood up and spoken over us, “Peace, be still.”
His words caused the weariness and storms we had been dealing with to cease. They immediately melted away.
It was the same peace the disciples felt that day in the boat. Peace, be still.
The following morning as I pondered the night’s events, I meditated on the scripture in Mark. I found it meant something different than I first imagined.
I assumed the word peace in the scripture was shalom, but it wasn’t, it was a different word, siopao. This word means, silence, a hush, muteness, involuntary stillness, or inability to speak.
Aha! This was exactly what we experienced.
As I dug a little deeper into the scriptures, I found the words, be still to mean: to close the mouth with a muzzle, to muzzle, to stop the mouth, make speechless, reduce to silence.
It was a powerful insight that day and it still rings true today.
That night Jesus stepped into the room and said, “Shhhh.” When He did, He was commanding every storm in our life to cease. He reduced all the things that were causing heaviness or weariness to a place of silence. They no longer had the power to speak into our lives. It was, indeed, a powerful Insight.
Today, I believe He reminded me of that night for a reason.
He is speaking to you and me today. To those who have become weary from the battle, He is proclaiming, “Shhh…peace be still” into your heart, your mind, and your emotions.
Today, my friend, I pray for you and I that He, (Jesus) is once again speaking to the storms in our life and commanding peace, commanding them to be silent and cease existing. He is speaking into our life and commanding a great calm to come and abide at this very moment. He is declaring those storms no longer have power in our life for Jesus purchased our peace at the Cross.
While it’s true we need this type of calm and peace in our nation, we first must experience it in our personal lives and in our family.
God is a good God. Nothing is impossible with Him, and nothing is impossible for you. Allow Him to speak into your situation right now. Allow Him to still the storm inside of you, to diminish the turmoil in your mind. Let that calm come.
At the sound of His mighty voice, calm must come, storms must dissipate, and peace must replace turmoil.
There are times in our lives when the storms speak louder than God’s Word. Many of us are walking through such a season, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up. But Jesus is speaking. Don’t allow the world’s voice to be louder than His. Tune into Him and listen for His, “Shhh.”
I don’t know what storm is raging in your life, but I do know, without a doubt, that the Lord is present to calm the storm, if you will only believe. It is my prayer that every storm is silenced on this day and you experience a great calm, as our Lord whispers in your ear.
Don’t allow the battle to weary you – instead find strength in God, in Jesus, and His Word. And allow Him to still the storm. Once peace invades our homes, it will flow out to our cities and our states. It will saturate our nation. In the meantime, we must stand firm and remain in peace…for in this earth, we are the voice of calm…and we can only be that voice, if we first receive it from Him. Remember, Jesus Himself said, “Apart from God, I can do nothing.” Neither can we.
Such encouraging words. Thank you.