Today a friend sent me this speech that she wrote and requested (if I was willing) that I post this on my blog. So without further ado here it is *drum roll*
Riots, shootings, plane crashes, car accidents, murders.... The list of tragedies in this world can go on and on. This is a sinful world, none of us are perfect, and there will always be problems. But, sometimes we dare to hope, I mean come on this is the 21st century we have solutions to almost everything, except the worst thing, sin. We hope soon this world might get better, but then something else happens, something worse… and our hearts break again. Our nation is crying out in need, praying to God for peace. Finding peace in the midst of a heart ache is something our nation suffers with, it’s something we suffer with. We have all had trials, great and small, and sometimes the last thing we feel like doing is resting in God’s promises. So, today I want to show you how you can always find that peace in the storm.
But first it is important to understand what we are trying to achieve, what peace is. Peace is tranquility, it is rest. Now what this doesn’t mean is that the pain of loss is going to go away. We are still going to mourn during loss. However, it does mean that during trials we can rest in God’s promises and our souls can be calm because we know the Lord.
And I’m going to show you how to have that peace though Ephesians 3: 17-21. In this passage Paul is telling the Ephesians what he is praying for. And he is praying:
"17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." ("Ephesians 3: 17-21." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.) (NASB)
Paul wrote this as prayer and instruction for the Ephesians. Today I want to look at the main points of instruction that Paul gives. And we are going to take this verse by verse and uncover what we can do to find peace when tragedy occurs.
When tragedy occurs, we can find peace in God by…………
1. 17-19: Letting Christ dwell in our hearts,
a. Comprehending God, and his love
b. Filled with the fullness of God
2. 20: Trusting Him to do more than we ask=faith
a. Power in us=Spirit
3. 21: Giving Him glory
a. He will always be there
4. 21b: Hoping in the world without end
Con: Finding peace in His Word
Verses 17-19 say, "17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." ." ("Ephesians 3: 17-21." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.) (NASB)
Starting these three verses Paul asks that Christ would live in us by faith. Obviously that has to be the first step because without faith Christ can’t live in is us. But we also need love. Christ can't dwell in our hearts unless we are rooted in love. Because as John tells us, God is love. And if we don't have love, we don't know God. So we need to be grounded in love so that Christ can dwell in our hearts. Then we will be able to understand the breadth and length and depth and height of God. Now we know we will never be able to fully grasp that knowledge because God is greater than we could ever fathom. However, with Christ in our hearts, we can realize that God is greater and stronger than anything in this world. And we can better understand the love of God because we have experienced it and therefore we can be filled with the fullness of God. Filled with the fullness of God? What does that mean? That His glory and love fill us. As we love and understand God more, we love Him more which means He lives more fully in us. To be filled with the fullness of God means that we know Gods love and glory so much that we show it to others because we are so overwhelmed with it that we can't contain it. Then we need to trust Him
Verse 20 says: "20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us," ." ("Ephesians 3: 17-21." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.) (NASB) What we see here we can trust God to do more then we even ask, more then we could even think. The Lord can perform miracles so awesome that we can't even think about, therefore we need to trust Him. Now this doesn't mean that we shouldn't pray. We still need to pray and ask God to bless us and others. In fact Paul writes in Philippians 4:6-7: "6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (“Philippians 4: 6-7” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.), (NKJV)
We are told to pray about everything, and then we will have the peace of God that surpasses understanding. When we pray however, we need to understand that Christ can accomplish more then we ask for. But it is not always in the way we think. He has a plan and if our requests are outside of that plan, He is not going to grant them. So, does that mean that suffering is a part of God's plan? Jeremiah 29:11 says "11 For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (“Jeremiah 29:11” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.) (NIV). So yes, God's plans do involve suffering sometimes. But, He tells us that it is for our good, to prosper us. Suffering brings us closer to God because to know how bright the light is, we have to know how dark the darkness is. So we need to constantly have faith that God knows what he is doing, and no matter what comes into our lives He controls it. Before a heart ache can ever touch our lives it has to go through God’s hands and that should give us extraordinary peace.
But that's not all that can give us comfort. The second part of verse 20 says that God will answer our prayers according to the power that works in us. This power is the Holy Spirit. And it is constantly changing us on our way to sanctification. But the Holy Spirit is also there as our comforter. In John 14:26 Jesus says "26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.", (“John 14: 26” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. ) (KJV). The Holy Spirit is there to comport us and help us. We know that in hard times we can always have peace because of the Spirits presence in us.
So, we need to have faith and trust Him, then we need to give Him glory. "21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." ." ("Ephesians 3: 17-21." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.) (NASB) The first thing we see in this verse is that it starts by giving God the glory. That is how we always need to start and finish. No matter what happens we know, as we saw earlier, that it is all God’s plan, and therefore, we can always glorify Him. This isn't always going to be easy. We always are ready to praise God in the good moments. We enjoy singing praises when we are in church, surrounded by people we know and love. But it is not so easy to sing praises when we hear that 84 innocent people were murdered in Nice, France, or when something happens in our life that just leaves us shocked and hurting. In those moments, we can't help but feel distressed and ask God "Why?” We need to recognize that we might never understand His plan until we are in heaven, but it is better than we can ever imagine.
The hope. World without end is what Paul says. That is our goal. That is the promise our hearts need to hold on for. That world that will never end. It is the home that Jesus went to prepare for us. It is heaven. When this world fills with pain, we can hold on to the hope of heaven. We can trust in the promise that the day is coming when our Lord will make the darkness disappear. And He will take away all the pain of this shattered world.
What we’ve seen today is that every day we should pray with Paul that we would: Let Christ dwell in our hearts, trust him to do more than we ask, give him the glory, know that He will always be there, and hope in the world without end.
These are the steps we need to take in the tragedy of this world to find peace. But, there is one more, it is what we have been doing in these past ten minutes. Studying God's Word. When we read the Scripture we can find peace, even in the hardest time. And not just reading it, studying it, learning it, and hiding it in our hearts forever. So that when five officers get shot in Dallas, when 84 die in France, when you can’t turn on the news without hearing of disaster, or something happens to a loved one, we know that God is close to the broken hearted. We know that there is only one who can wipe away every tear, and we can trust that He knows what he is doing, even if it hurts us. Because in the middle of tragedy we can only find true peace in the Lord God.
Citations
"Ephesians 3:17-21." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
“Philippians 4:6-7” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
“John 14:26” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
“Jeremiah 29:11” Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
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