CALMNESS WITHIN!

Calmness within can put us ahead of any challenging situation that may come against us! The scripture says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

It’s easy to have calmness within us when everything is going very well, you marry a wonderful spouse, you start a good business, and your career is going very well… that’s exciting, and there is adrenaline flowing.

However, in the face of any challenging situation, it is not always easy to feel calmness within but when you can see the finish line and the dream is in sight, the calmness may not be problematic… Having calmness within at the start and the end of any challenging situation is not that worrisome, the real deal is having calmness within in the middle of a challenging moment; when the challenge seems to be at its peak.

I am talking about that moment when it’s taking longer than you thought. When you do not have the funds that are required. When the medical report wasn’t good. When people you call family, friends or colleagues oppose anything you try to do to help out! Calmness in the middle of challenges is a sign of our trust in God and allows God to work on our behalf

The mistake we make is we get discouraged and tell God, I know you brought this person into my life, but there is conflict and not what I ever thought. God, you blessed me with this business but I don’t have the funds to get it executed. It’s in the middle of the challenge that you see most people lose the battle. But God never promised that we would reach our destiny without challenges, opposition, disappointments and things we don’t understand.

The scripture says, “Don’t think it strange when you face fiery trials” (1 Peter 4:12-19) That means don’t be upset because that person did you wrong. Don’t start worrying because business went down. God is still on the throne. Nothing that happened to you has stopped God’s plan for your life. He is not in the heavens scratching His head thinking, “Oh dear that one put me off balance. I didn’t see that storm coming”.

What God promised you, He still has every intention of bringing it to pass. I know you can be calm at the start of the challenge, I know you can be calm at the end of the challenge. My question to you today is will you be calm in the middle of the challenge? I mean when it’s not happening the way you thought. When it seems like you are going backwards, every voice tells you to give up. “You must have heard God wrongly. You wouldn’t have this opposition if you were on the right course”. Don’t believe those lies. It’s all a part of the process.

Here’s the key: when God puts a dream in your heart, He will show you the end, He gives you the promise, but He won’t show you the middle. If He told us what it was going to take before it came to pass, many times we would talk ourselves out of it.

In the scripture, an angel appeared to a young teenage girl named Mary. He said, “Mary, you are highly favoured of God. You are going to have a baby without knowing a man. He will be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world”. God showed her to be the mother of Christ, have honour, and be respected and admired for generations to come. I’m sure Mary was excited. She couldn’t believe it was happening. (Luke 1:28-38)

But years later, imagine what Mary would have been saying, “God, you didn’t tell me having this baby would cause my fiance to want to call off the engagement. You didn’t tell me I would have this baby in a manger with smelly animals. You didn’t tell me I would have to live on the run for two years, trying to hide my baby from King Herod. You didn’t tell me He would grow up to be mocked and ridiculed. That I would have to watch Him been crucified, die a painful death”.

When God brought the Israelites out of slavery, they were headed toward the promised land. God showed them the destination, the land flowing with milk and honey. He got them started, but in the middle, He didn’t say, “I gave you the promise, now you are on your own. I wish you well in the middle”. No, all along the way, God supernaturally provided for them. He gave them manna, something like bread, to eat each morning out in the desert.

When they wanted meat, God shifted the direction of the winds and hundreds of thousands of quail came into the camp. When they were thirsty and couldn’t find a stream, God brought water out of a rock. He protected them from enemies that were much bigger and more powerful. When King Pharaoh changed His mind and came chasing after a dead end at the Red Sea they had nowhere to go. It looked like they were done. God supernaturally parted the waters and took them through on dry ground.

There may be some Red Seas in your path. It seems like you are stuck, the good news is God knows how to part the waters. He knows how to make a way. You may not have the funds you need to further your education or to run your business, but God knows how to shift the direction of the winds and bring quail into your camp, so to speak. God can still bring water out of a rock.

YOU ARE NOT STAYING THERE!

The scripture says, “You will go through the flood but you will not drown”. It takes calmness within to pass through it by not staying there… It goes on to say, “You will go through the fire but you won’t be burned. You will go through the famine but you won’t go hungry”. You may be in the fire or the flood, You are not staying there, you are going through it”. (Isaiah 43:2)

When you are in the middle of the challenge, you have to remind yourself that this too shall pass by not staying there. It’s temporary. Now quit giving so much energy to something that’s not going to last. Quit wasting time worrying about the situation at work, discouraged over the medical report, upset over what they said. That’s not your destination; you are only passing through.

The challenge is not permanent, the sickness, the legal situation, the loneliness, it’s just a step along the way and you not staying there. But if you make the mistake of letting it overwhelm you and get discouraged, then you will settle there and let what should have been temporary become permanent. This is where many people miss it; they give up in the middle of the storm. I’m asking you to keep moving forward.

When you have calmness within in the middle of the storm, God will make things happen you could never make happen. You may be in one of those days of storm right now. Storm in your health, in a relationship, in your mind. It’s easy to think, “It’s never going to change, I will always be depressed. I will always struggle with my finances. I will always struggle with this situation”. No, you need to get ready because you are not going to stay there. Your day of deliverance is coming, your day of freedom, your day of joy, your day of victory is on the way”.

In the scripture, Jesus had been teaching thousands of people. It was late in the day. He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake”. They got in a boat and began to travel there. But along the way they encountered a huge storm. The scripture describes it as a furious squall of hurricane proportions. The winds were so strong they thought the boat was going to capsize. The waves were coming up over the top of it.

The disciples were so panicked that Peter ran down to where Jesus was sleeping and said, “Jesus, wake up, we are in the middle of a storm. We are about to die”. Jesus woke up and He spoke to the storm and everything calmed down. What is interesting is Jesus knew there was going to be a storm before they left that place. (Mark 4:35-41)

Why did He tell them, “Let’s go to the other side” if He knew there was going to be a hurricane, a major storm? Because He also knew that the storm could not keep them from their destiny. He knew there would be difficulties in the middle, but when He declared, “We are going to the other side”, all the forces of darkness could not stop Him. He is going to make it to the other side.

When we are in a challenging situation, a lot of times we do like Peter. We get all upset, and panicked, “God, you have got to help me. God, you have got to fix this right now”. The reason it may seem like God is not waking up is not because He is ignoring you, not because He is uninterested, it’s because He knows you can handle it. He wouldn’t have allowed that challenging situation if it was going to sink you.

Now quit being upset over something you can handle. God is not ignoring you. He knew there would be a challenging situation before He sent you out. If He came running every time we had a challenging situation, our spiritual muscles would never develop. We would never really trust Him. But when you have calmness within despite what comes against you, that’s a sign of maturity and complete trust in God.

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’