Peace In A Messy World

There’s a lot going on in our world: London, Manchester, North Korean missiles, incoherent tweets, racism and injustice, school shootings. And of course there are simply the stresses of  everyday life: traffic, dishes, crying kids, sickness. How do you handle it all? How do you get to a point each where you are at peace with all this stuff? Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’ve abandoned all hope at having peace in this messed up world, so you just try to get by each day.

In Ephesians 1 Paul is praying that the church would know something. He wants us to know “…what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Paul wants the church to know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power. Did you notice what God’s power did here? His power brought us to faith (his power toward us who believe), His power raised Jesus from the dead, and His power brought Jesus to God’s right hand (the ascension). Paul really wants us to deeply know how powerful God is. He wants us to know that God’s in control of everything that’s happening.

That knowledge should bring us such peace. The church should be filled with people that are totally at peace in spite of what’s happening all around us. In a world where so many people feel helpless anxiety about all that’s happening, we should be a people that have such peace because we know God’s power. There’s nothing that’s outside of his plan, his control, and his knowledge forever. He even knows what covfefe means! If you get on social media for a while, you realize that so many people feel helpless anxiety about all that’s happening in our world right now. It seems chaotic and helpless. It’s good for us to recognize that when the world seemed to be at it’s most chaotic, when Jesus died, God’s power raised Jesus. God is more powerful than our circumstances.

And yet he still enters into our circumstances with us. In John 11, when Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, he very well knew that he has the power to raise him from the dead. And yet he came to the house of mourning, he met with Lazarus’ sisters, and he cried with them. He was present in their trials. He felt what Lazarus’ sisters felt right alongside them. And then he displayed his power over their circumstances by raising their brother from the dead.

The world is not lacking in chaotic circumstances. The world is also not lacking in a powerful God, who is never out of control. In all of your chaos today, rest in peace that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is more powerful than anything going on in your life today. In fact, his power will be made perfect in your weakness: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”