Finding Peace Witihin

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

Welcome to the fall. I'm sure, like me, as your life re enters the quote unquote normal rhythms, you find yourself busy. And in that busyness, sometimes you feel scattered and disconnected and frustrated, and what you really want is you want joy and peace and contentment. And so we're starting a new series called Entering Rest in the Midst of the Race, and the concept is this, that God offers us rest, and that that's something we can enter into.

Welcome to And that's a theme throughout the scriptures, this idea of entering God's rest. And each week we're going to look at a different concept to help us find that rest. This week what I want to talk to you about is finding rest by bringing peace to the inside of yourself. You and I travel through life with all kinds of different anxieties and we begin to flail around and we're trying to seek different things.

But what we want to do is we want to be able to find peace within ourselves. so that we can experience peace in our world. We're going to do that through the story of Jesus calming the wind and the waves, the storm that brings up in the boat. And in the midst of it, the disciples say to Jesus, Jesus, why are you asleep?

Don't you care that we're going to be destroyed by this storm? Jesus wakes up and he says, peace be still. And the wind and the waves, they die down instantly. And then he looks at his disciples and says, Don't you know who I am? Where's your faith? And I think this story connects to us. See, in order for us to find peace in ourselves, we need to do three things.

One, we need to be honest about the wrestle that goes on inside of us. Two, we have to trust in the goodness of God. And three, we need to do our own inner work to quiet the storm.

This question that the disciples ask, Jesus, don't you care? That's an essential question that I think as human beings we're all asking. God, don't you care? To our spouse, don't you care? To our kids, don't you care? To our parents, don't you care? To our co workers, don't you care?

Each of us is wandering around, wanting to find worthiness and acceptance and belonging and safety. But we wonder, does anyone else care?

And, what God tells us is that God cares very much. That we are worthy, that we do belong, that we are loved, that there is safety. But for you and I to tackle that internal wrestle that goes on, that maybe feeds some of our negative behaviors, that drives the anxiety because we're trying to find these things like safety and belonging, through habits that aren't that helpful.

You and I have to be honest that we have them inside of ourselves. We need to be honest that sometimes we don't feel worthy. We need to be honest that the events of our past make us feel unsafe. We need to be honest about the fact that at times we don't feel like we do belong and that's really what we long for.

Because when we begin to be honest about it, then we can engage it. And we can hear God's voice of love, and we can do the internal work that we need to do. So, we have to be honest about the internal wrestle.

Second, we need to trust in God's goodness. So, Jesus says, Be still. Peace. Be still. He calms the wind and the waves.

In the ancient world, the sea was a symbol for evil. And so Jesus ability to calm it is this statement by Mark that Jesus has the power to overcome evil and brokenness and sin. And that's it for us, isn't it? In the midst of a world we wrestle with whether or not it's brokenness or goodness that will win the day.

What we discover in Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Is that goodness is the thing that wins the day. And God is good, and God's love will conquer all. And so for you and I, we have to remind ourselves of that, over and over and over and over again. We have to get that into our bones. That God is good, because when we know that God is good, it frees us to engage and serve the world.

And so this fall, my question to you is, what are your practices that are helping you get this idea that God's goodness, and that this world's goodness, is a reality? I think that's the helpful part of things like scripture, reading, and prayer, and spiritual conversations. And so I encourage you to set aside some time in the midst of the busyness, In the midst of the hecticness, in the midst of the wrestle, to remind yourself of God's goodness, how God has worked in the past, how God promises to work in the future, who He has displayed God's self to be in the person of Christ.

All these things, singing, prayer, conversation with others, helps us remember that God is good, that the world is good, and that's the ultimate end. And that then helps us trust in God's goodness. We can be honest about our brokenness. We can trust in God's goodness. And then finally, we can do some work. We can do the internal work to quiet our soul.

And that's what Jesus says to the disciples. And they were in awe, the text says. They were in awe that even the wind and the waves obey Him. For you and I, when we know we are loved, It frees us to act out of love. See, when we're wrestling and we're uncertain whether we're loved, it's hard to know what to do.

It's hard to be honest. It's hard to offer grace and patience and mercy to others. But when we are able to know that we're loved, then we can respond in love. And that love is loving ourselves and loving the world. And so that's going to require us work. It's going to require us to do some things where we say, you know what, I don't have to be a person that believes my entire value comes from performing well.

My value doesn't come from taking care of others. My value doesn't come from having everything be perfect all the time. If we know we're loved, we can set those things aside and we can look at our behavior and say, you know what, I'm going to act differently. I'm going to engage, and I'm going to be honest, and I'm going to be kind, but I'm also going to allow myself some space to be a human myself, to find some rest, to have some boundaries.

Because when those two things can go together, then we're no longer operating out of a franticness, trying to fill this god shaped vacuum we have in ourselves, but rather we operate out of a place of peace.

So what is it for you? What is the work that you need to do? Maybe it's picking up a book like The Origins of You or The Road Back to You and giving those a read.

Maybe it's getting with a counselor to talk about how you see this repeated pattern in your life and how it's causing you pain and anxiety. Whatever it is, I encourage you to do it. To be honest about your struggle, to trust that God loves you and that God is good, and then do that inner work. So despite the busyness and the hectic schedule, you can enter into God's rest over and over and over again because you know that as a human being, you belong, you're loved and you're worthy.

Have a great week and I look forward to this series offering up new ways for us to enter rest amidst the race.